#this was the fastest i’ve made a quiz in a while

[notshphnxx]

what’s the point of words if not to share them with other people? so here’s a quiz i made last night with lots of words and lies .-.

tell me what you get if you want-

[lovemesomesurveys]

800 questions part 9

401) Do you know any self-defense or martial arts? No.

402) Who’s your favorite movie action hero? Iron Man, Spiderman, Star Lord, and Ant-Man.

403) Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? I’ve ridden on the back before when I was a kid with my dad.

404) Do you collect anything? Giraffe stuffed animals and knickknacks, keychains, graphic tees.

405) Is there anything you wished would come back into fashion? I wear what I like, I don’t care about if it’s in fashion or not.

406) Do you stick to conventional fashions or like to try and be original? I just wear whatever it is that I find to be attractive or comfortable. <<<

407) Have you ever given someone a handmade present? Yeah, when I was a kid.

408) Are you introvert or extrovert? I’m very much an introvert.

409) If you could have any feature from an animal what would you want? Uhh I’m good.

410) What’s your preferred swimming stroke? I don’t swim. 411) Have you ever been scuba diving? Nooo. Just the idea of it sounds terrifying to me.

412) Have you ever had a disastrous interview? No, thankfully. I’ve never had an interview, period.

413) What makes you nervous? Lots of things are capable of turning me into a nervous Nellie. <<< Saaame.

414) Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? Uhhh. Hearing and smell.

415) What color are your eyes? Brown.

416) Have you ever been to an Art gallery? Yeah, several times.

417) Do you shout out the answers at the TV whilst watching quiz shows? Yeah. 

418) Are you a valuable asset on a Pub Quiz team? No. 419) Have you ever won any kind of quiz yourself? Only while playing board games.

420) Do you get over-involved with TV or movie plots at times? You could say that. I get really invested in some TV shows and movies and their characters.

421) Do you own any inflatable furniture? No.

422) What’s the highest hill or mountain you’ve ever climbed? Never climbed a hill or mountain.

423) Do you have a piggy bank? No.

424) What’s the fastest you’ve ever traveled in a car? Maybe 80 something mph. 

425) Could you ever hand milk a cow? I don’t think so.

426) Do you have popcorn with a movie? When I go to the theater, yes. It’s a must.

427) What’s the furthest you’ve ever got a paper airplane to fly? Not far at all, they just nosedived. 

428) Have you ever built an igloo? No.

429) Can you play the harmonica? No.

430) Have you ever made a ball of twine or rubber bands? No.

431) If given the option of having a flake in your ice cream do you always take it? A flake?

432) Could you ever be a living organ donor? I don’t know if I could, health wise.

433) Which was your favorite science? Biology, Physics or Chemistry? None.

434) Could you ever go out with someone just cause they’re rich? Absolutely not.

435) Have you ever contemplated suing someone? No.

436) Are you pretty devious? Not at all.

437) Have you ever had a surprise party? (that was an actual surprise) No, but I’ve thrown one before.

438) Are you any good at giving massages? Probably not. I’ve never given one.

439) What’s been your worst date ever? I’ve never been on a bad date, really, <-- Me either. <<< Same.

440) Have you ever slapped someone in public? No, I’ve never slapped anyone anywhere before.

441) Have you ever drawn on a sleeping or inebriated person? Sleeping, yes. My cousins and I did that sometimes as kids during sleepovers.

442) Have you ever warn clothing with the labels/tags still attached? No.

443) Have you ever slipped on a banana skin? No. I’ve never seen or even heard of someone doing that apart from in like old cartoons. Banana peels aren’t typically laying around and if there was one, I don’t think it’d be slippery.

444) Are you scared of the dark? I sleep with the TV on for light and sound, so. Certain situations, yes.

445) Do you have a lawyer? No. I’ve never needed one.

446) Have you ever been wolf whistled in public? No.

447) What’s the worst chat up line you’ve heard? They’re all corny. 448) Have you ever been water skiing? No.

449) Have you ever hopelessly failed a test? Math tests.

450) If you had a year off, what would you want to do? I’ve had a few years “off” these past few years and I haven’t done shit. I’ve been dealing with health stuff and really struggling. 

[groundsnow]

イツカ

I gotta act normally. Prof. Matsui specifically instructed me to keep watch on Aki without letting her suspect me.

"Remember, Horikawa, you need to get close to her as much as possible, but don't let her or anyone suspect your actions. The Cirql System is determined to keep this a secret from the general public. Only the concerned authorities are aware of our operations. You can think of yourself as Masuda's bodyguard, keeping watch 24/7. Do anything you deem appropriate to accomplish this task as long as you uphold the principles of Cirql."

Anything? So, basically, it's up to me to handle this case? That is, as long as no one discovers about the secret society... and Aki's true identity. I'll get creative then, I guess. I look at my wristwatch— it's 9:48 pm! Damn, I can't be late. It's going to be another violation. The dormitory's curfew is at 10 pm. I'll definitely make it before 10!

I run as quickly as I can. Recently, I noticed that my endurance has improved. The trainings must have really paid off! I'm about the enter the gate now. It's 9:53 pm. Well, that was fast. Whew!

I put in the key and turn the knob. I open the door and see that Aki is still awake, sitting in front of her desk and facing her laptop. She's probably studying. I enter the room and put my stuff on the desk.

"Yo, Aki" I greet her with a two-finger salute.

"Hello, Horikawa." She waves at me.

"Busy, huh. Studying again?" I ask.

"Yes, we're gonna have a quiz on Thursday. She says.

"You know, Aki, you don't have to speak so formally to me." I say. She looks so startled.

"O-okay, Sena." Am I actually intimidating her? She can't even say it loud enough.

"Right. From now on just call me by my first name. " I say cheerfully. She looks surprised then laughs.

"Okay." She looks embarrassed by what I just said. Maybe she's just really shy.

"By the way, Aki, I have a question." She looks at me intently, her eyes not blinking.

"Eh? What is it?" Her face looks surprised. She's too easy to read! If someone wanted to pull a prank on her, I'm sure she'd fall for it easily. But I won't do that, ever. Not to an innocent and gullible person like her. Sorry, Aki, but I have to do this. Please forgive me! I run my fingers through my hair, then look her in the eyes.

"Can you stop being timid? Seriously, it's stupid. Don't waste your potential by being a nerd who avoids people. You shut-in." It's mean, I know. But this is the fastest way to know if she has DID too. Silence fills the room, and she's still staring at me. She doesn't blink or move at all. I move closer and wave my hand in front of her.

"Hey idiot?" She slowly turns her back on me. I guess I have my answer now. I hear a loud, manic laughter, which startles me. She slowly turns to face me again, this time her eyes turn blue. Okay, now that's unexpected. Is this part of the gene mutation too?

"HAHAHAHAHAHA IDIOT? YOU MUST BE SO FULL OF YOURSELF. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO." Whoa dude that 180° change to a totally different personality. She's still laughing manically. She really has MGID, plus DID. I just confirmed my theory. The aggressive personality is triggered when she's faced with a potential threat. Her facial expression, voice, and overall aura are completely different. She's turned into someone else.

"Who are you then?" I respond, trying to find out how the other persona reacts.

"HA. YOU WANNA PLAY A GAME, HUH?" She smirks then grabs the closest thing she can reach then throws it at me. I quickly dodge it. She's finally gotten violent. She throws a punch at me, which I dodge again. She laughs while attacking me. I catch her fist and try to stop her. She's surprisingly strong despite looking so petite and weak.

"Tell me who you are." I ask her, now holding her fists to prevent her from punching me.

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, IDIOT!" She twists her arms, causing me to lose grip of her. She attempts to kick my abdomen, but I quickly dodge. Is she actually trained in martial arts? I don't want to hurt her so I've taken a defensive stance all this time.

"What are you doing?" I ask again.

"YOU'RE ANNOYING!" Yikes. I never thought the other personality would be this violent. She continues to throw punches and kicks at me, all of which I either dodge or block with my arms. I grab her arms then pin her against the wall. Her sharp gaze pierces through me. I suddenly feel something hard on my stomach, forcing me to fall on the ground. Right. She just used the one-inch punch on me. It hurts. I can't help but cough. She's about to throw me a punch. Running out of options, I grab a needle pen from my pocket then stab her left thigh. She still gets to hit my left jaw though. A few seconds later, she loses consciousness. I catch her just before she hits the ground. Phew. That was tiring. If only I fought back, I wouldn't have been hit. I just chose not to injure her. I'm now carrying her to her bed, my arms supporting her back and the back of her knees. She's so light that I don't feel like I'm carrying a person. I'm glad the tranquilizers worked on her. She'll wake up soon.

I sit on my bed, still watching her. I'm now feeling the injuries I sustained earlier. My left jaw is lightly bruised, and my abdomen still hurts. I stand up to get some ice cubes from the refrigerator for cold compress. Now sitting on my bed, I can't help but look at her who is sleeping peacefully. I can't believe that I'm looking at a 16-year-old, because she honestly looks like a 12-year-old kid. Her face is too young-looking, and she looks so innocent, which is too different from the other persona earlier. I've proven that she indeed has DID apart from MGID, and how the violent persona is triggered, but I can't let Cirql know about it, or else I'm doomed. Prof. Matsui would surely scold me for being reckless.

I put down the cold compress bag on my desk, realizing that I haven't changed clothes yet. I quickly grab a t-shirt and a pajama so I could rest on my bed. I'm lying down, facing the ceiling. Ugh. Still can't sleep. I'm wondering why her violent persona was triggered when I told her to stop being timid. She was probably bullied in the past. I face sideways, now facing her. She sleeps in a fetal position, which makes her look cuter. She's almost like a kitten. I let out a sigh. Well, at least, I have some leads now in handling this case. I've uncovered some clues on her identity. I hope everything goes well.

I check the time — it's 4:36 am and I still haven't had a wink of sleep. Damn. I keep tossing and turning. I'm thinking about what happened earlier. I specifically thought of asking that question, because I somehow knew that she'll react to it strongly. We haven't talked a lot, but my intuition tells me that it'll cause internal conflicts for her, hence an ideal trigger. I suddenly feel guilty for doing that to her, still, it's the only way to know. I'll take responsibility for this, and won't let anyone know about the reckless move I made to confirm my theories.

Looks like I won't be able to sleep at all. It's 4:50 am and I have a 7 am class. I'm not even sleepy. I get up and gather my toiletries before going to the shower. If I keep lying on my bed, I might fall asleep eventually and miss my class.

It's now 6:00 am, and I've finished preparing. She's still sound asleep. I check her class schedule on her desk. She has an 8:30 am class. Should I wake her up now? It might be too early though. Aight, I'll just stay here until it's 6:45 am so she can sleep for 45 minutes more. It's like making up for what I did last night too.

Her phone rings, and for some reason, I get curious who sent her a message. Her screen's locked, but notifications and details are still visible.

Hiromi Horikawa

Hi Aki! :)

What the hell? Why is that bastard chatting her? Seriously, what is he up to? Does he know that she's a case?

I grab my phone from my pocket. I gotta text someone. I search the bastard on Telegram.

Annoying Bastard

Sena: Do you know Aki?

Hiromi: Yeah, we're blocmates. Why?

Sena: Stop talking to her.

Hiromi: Why should I listen to you?

Sena: Because I'm the sentinel assigned to her. Get away from her.

Hiromi: What? Since when did she become a case?

Sena: Haven't you heard from Prof. Matsui at all?

Hiromi: No. I don't understand what you're saying.

Sena: Idiot. You don't attend meetings, that's why. Talk to Prof. Matsui then.

Hiromi: You know that I've filed a request for inactivity. I need to focus on my studies.

Sena: Focus on your studies, and yet you've chosen to abandon the most important duty bestowed on us. Nice. Just talk to Prof. Matsui. And don't get near Aki again, or I'll personally report you to Cirql. I'll be destroying this convo now.

Hiromi is typing...

I tap the "delete conversation" button so that there's no trace for both us. I can't risk that bastard doing something stupid.

[dirtdiggersanddinosaurs]

It’s not the greatest feeling knowing your birthday will fall while you are still locked down, I of all people should know as I saw my big 40th birthday plans crumble before my eyes. But as an adult we deal with the disappointment knowing that it’s a small sacrifice to make to keep our loved ones safe. However, I wasn’t so sure Stanley would be quite as understanding as he’d been looking forward to his 6th birthday since, well since the day after his 5th!

We’ve always had a ‘birthday tea’ at home to celebrate any birthday and the boys have always chosen their cake theme for me to try and create…so luckily no major changes there. But, we usually book a special day out, a mini break or a visit to an attraction too. No such luck this year! Add in the fact that extended family and friends can’t visit and I was tasked with still making Stanley’s birthday special from home. It had been James’s 3rd birthday in February and a visit to Cadbury World and partying with Nana at a family rave was very fresh in everyone’s minds, especially Stanley’s. So no pressure at all then!

I asked Stanley what he would like to do if Coronavirus didn’t exist, and he said:

I would like to go to the seaside, one with the games and the bit that goes out over the sea that you can walk on, and has the crocodile with the sausages!

Bless him! I assumed he didn’t mean the coast of Northern Australia, but rather a humble UK resort where Punch & Judy usually reside. I was determined to make that happen for him one way or another!

Oh, We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!

We don’t have a garden as such, but we recently did a yard makeover (read about that here) so I had a little more room to play with. All I needed was some good weather – ha ha yes, I know! As it happened we dropped lucky and it was beautiful on the day, but fully prepared for a UK summer I had an emergency canopy backup plan too.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside!

In order to bring the seaside to Stanley I first wrote down all the things that we love about it. Then I found a carnival type font online, printed a few copies of the alphabet and crafted my own ‘signposts’

Handmade signs

The Beach

Yes, it’s an obvious one but essential really. I ordered 3 bags of play sand to be delivered and found some blue tarpaulin in the shed that would serve two purposes, to stop the sand from spreading too far and to give the illusion of the sea.

A few deckchairs, bucket and spade sets and we were all set.

The beach

The Arcade

There’s nothing Stanley likes more than taking a tub full of 10p and 2p coins into the arcade! One of his favourites is ‘the grabber’ or claw games where you have to try and win a prize, usually an impossible to grab plush toy.

The arcade crazy claw

I did a bit of searching online and found a ‘crazy claw’ game on Amazon. This is actually a family board game of sorts but I knew I could adapt it to our needs. I built the game up, used the tokens and balls from the set but then added a party bag of haribo sweets. I tested it out, it was nearly impossible to grab the sweets, and I was left highly frustrated yet determined to give it one more try – brilliant, just like the real thing!

Not as easy as it looks!

My second game was a tin can alley set up. I started off trying to make my own, but I was worried about sharp edges with so many little fingers around so I purchased one in the end. It is a lovely set though and we have it to keep, it will be good fun on camping holidays.

The arcade tin can alley in full swing

A gift of a pair of paddleballs from our neighbour (who was in on the plan) completed our arcade. For a bit of healthy competition the winners from each game received a token (re-purposed from the Crazy Claw game) to use in exchange for…

Donkey Rides

This required some imagination, OK a lot of imagination and a sense of humour too! By this point I had decided that anything to make us all laugh during these strange times was a good thing. A donkey mask was fashioned onto Eli’s baby tricycle and voila, we had the fastest donkey this side of Blackpool! I knew it would make Stanley laugh but I expected him to think it was a bit silly and more of a token gesture. But nope, this birthday boy went hurtling down the back alley on the worlds smallest donkey a number of times throughout the day.

Our trusty steed!

Fish & Chips

Our local chip shop had re-opened the week before offering a time slot collection service, and guess what? – they even served the children’s meals in a bucket and spade!

Yummy!

Well, that just had our names written all over it and the boys sat at the beach eating their lunch. Admittedly I had to take Stanley and James’s food out of the buckets and plate it up as they complained that they couldn’t eat it properly. I’ve learned not to get between boys and their food, Eli persevered though!

Fish & Chips on the beach

Ice-Cream

What else? We have a stable style backdoor so Daddy became an ice-cream man and took orders from his ‘kiosk’.

Ice-cream, get your ice-cream!

We had three flavours to go at and a choice of toppings, the end result was three very excited (and messy) boys.

Chocolate with a flake, excellent choice sir!

The Pier

This is where my cardboard hoarding came in handy! I wanted to recreate the face hole photo opportunities that are usually found on the pier at seaside resorts. I drew a cartoon character, complete with victorian style bathing suit onto a piece of thick cardboard. After painting it in I drew the outline in thick marker and then cut out the face hole. Ben made a base from scraps of wood he found in the shed so that it was free standing. We had great fun with this, we all had our photos taken.

Memories

We’ve had some amazing times at the seaside and Stanley always remembers his grandad knotting a hanky and putting it on him as a hat, and I can remember my Grandad doing it too to stop his bald head from burning. So, that was our party hats sorted, I already had some brightly coloured stripey napkins so I knotted them into hats, generational Grandad style chic.

Grandad chic

Two days before Stanley’s birthday we had the good news that Nana could become part of our social bubble. She was able to celebrate and spend the day at the seaside with us (although I think she came purely for the ice-cream ha ha). It made Stanley’s day and there were lots of long awaited cuddles to be had for all three boys.

Having Nana back was the best present!

We also had some socially distanced visits to the gate from Stanley’s friends, and they were able to have ice-cream with us too which was lovely and a nice surprise for Stanley.

After we had sung Happy Birthday and he had blown out his candles on his cake I asked Stan if he’d had a good day, and his verdict was…’BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!’

Fun in the sun for this birthday boy

I think lockdown birthdays can be just as much [if not more] fun than the all singing and dancing parties we were all used to pre Covid-19. If you put a little bit of effort in to make them memorable, you’ll have big smiles all round. But don’t just take my word for it, I asked my fellow bloggers how they made a lockdown celebration one to remember:

Sarah from Digital Motherhood:

We’re in Spain so it’s a bit different, though we were still in lockdown! I ordered cupcakes and we decorated the house with streamers, banners and balloons. We were allowed a small group of people around by the end of May so we had my parents and my daughter’s friend here for a bit. It was actually the day after they started to ease the rules so she was very lucky!

Michelle from Time and Pence:

We created a treasure hunt in the garden and gave my son clues to find lots of treats. We also arranged for his friends and family to have video chats and send him video messages then we ended the day with a BBQ and movie night! He had an extra surprise present in place of a party and he had a wonderful day!

Josie from Me, Them and the Others

We asked friends and family to record birthday messages for our son and then I edited them together to create a birthday video for him.

Erica from Things To Do In Kent

It was our son’s 4th birthday at the very beginning of lockdown so we were quite unprepared. We hastily put together a picnic in the garden and he got Gazillions bubble machines which he and his big brother loved playing with in the garden. For his older brother’s 9th birthday more recently we had a surprise movie day. I made a poster, we had far too many sweets and popcorn and he chose his favourite takeaway (Thai!), I would quite enjoy that for my own birthday!

Katrina from Trini Mama Bebe

We had a drive by birthday from friends and family, and even my sons favourite emergency service came to say hello. They gave him some sweets and some lights and sounds. It’s amazing what a tweet can do!

Nadia from Scandi Mummy

We celebrated our son’s 1st birthday in June with a little rainbow garden party as he’s a rainbow baby and it was (unsurprisingly) easy to find rainbow decorations and a cake to match!

Katie from Mums Family Fun

I organised a scavenger hunt and quiz with my son’s football buddies via Zoom for his 7th birthday. They all sang Happy Birthday to him with his cake. It was really lovely and he had a great day!

Kasia from Oh Mummy Mia

I made a cake for my son because we couldn’t buy any because of lockdown. I tried my best. He loves dinosaurs so the cake was with a dino theme. We did a picnic in our garden for his friendly dinosaurs and later we made homemade play doh and footprint fossils.

Paige from Paiges Preferences

We did a circus/fair for my sons 5th birthday. I have a highlight on my Instagram dedicated to it!

Kerry from Blissful Domestication

We did my sons 7th birthday as a pirate party. Activities included a treasure hunt, fancy dress, a video of happy birthday messages from friends, family and teachers. We decorated a tent for a tea party, and had a treasure chest piñata. Read all about our pirate party here.

Layla from Motherhood Diaries

I got the entire class to send my middle one a birthday message, along with other friends and family and compiled then together along with a Timeline of his birth to present day. He was chuffed! Read more of my party ideas here.

If you are feeling inspired by Stanley’s seaside birthday then check out my Pinterest board for more ideas.

All images are my own unless otherwise credited and must not be reproduced without permission.

Our Lockdown Birthday: How We Made It The Best One Yet! It's not the greatest feeling knowing your birthday will fall while you are still locked down, I of all people should know as I saw my big 40th birthday plans crumble before my eyes.

[blueboxesandtrafficcones]

Written on Your Heart - Chapter 1

12 year old Rose finds her soulmate in 15 year old James.  This is their story.

Now titled ‘Written on Your Heart’ and available on AO3!

Masterlist

Written for @doctorroseprompts Soulmate September.

10/Rose AU.  Will feature: Sarah Jane, Jackie, Donna, Wilf, Mickey, and others

Chapter 1/??

Every soulmated couple was marked in their own unique way.  Some couples, arguably the luckiest, had each other’s names inked on their skin; others would only be marked upon a shared touch, or speaking to each other.  There was no way of knowing how, or when, a person would be marked until it occurred, if it ever did.

There were two broad categories of the looking – those that knew they were mated but had not yet met, and those that were dependent on luck.  Those that knew typically had clues to follow, or at least to eliminate potentials, based on their mark.  The levels of contact for those that knew varied depending on their type of bond. Some had a name to be on the lookout for, but nothing else – others were in contact from a young age, but had not been able or allowed to meet until they were of age.  They were the lucky ones.

The other category, those who were only marked upon meeting, were not so fortunate.  They had no information about their mate; it was quite possible to meet them, even perhaps know them for years, without stumbling upon the trigger for the mark to appear.  There were stories, of couples who would work in the same office building and speak every day, and not know they were mated until they actually introduced themselves.  Others would be marked upon merely the brushing of the fingers; it was not uncommon to see someone running along the platform of the tube, yelling for their mate, only known of because of the brush of fingers.

Family didn’t seem to have anything to do with the type of mark you would receive; even in large groups of siblings, no two would have the same type of identifier.  If your ancestors tended to ‘know’, it was a higher likelihood that you would as well, but certainly no guarantee.

As a child, Rose had always been fascinated by her mother’s mark.  Jackie and Pete Tyler had been those with the first words they would ever say to each other imprinted on their skin.  After Pete’s death, Jackie’s marks had faded to a faint silver, almost impossible to see but still present.

Rose is twelve when the words first appear on her left palm, accompanied by a slight tickle.

Buy the new Harry Potter book.

What?

She was in the middle of math class, staring out the window, when she glanced down and saw the message. At first, she wasn’t certain how it had gotten there, as it most certainly wasn’t her handwriting.  It wasn’t until the bell rang, and she was halfway to her next class the most likely explanation hit her, and she stopped dead in the hallway.

In a fog, giddy with excitement, she had enough presence of mind to make her way to the nearest toilet, heedless of the bell ringing for the next period to begin.  Instead, she locked herself in a stall and sat on the toilet lid, staring at her hand in awe, gently tracing the letters.

Eventually, it occurred to her that if she could see his writing, he would likely be able to see if she responded.  Digging in her bag for a pen that wouldn’t hurt, she held it poised over her palm, lacking only something to write.

This was it – her first communication with her soulmate!  She’d been worried that she would be one of the searchers; that she’d never know if she had a mate, or worse, that she would only know when she lost him.  She wanted something special, dazzling; she wanted to charm him, make him fall hopelessly in love with her with only a few letters written on her skin and transferred to his.  But what was right?

In the end, she decided to make one thing clear – she was her own person, capable of thinking and deciding for herself.  Even though she knew in the back of her mind it was most likely only a note to himself (or herself – it happened), she still wanted to establish herself as independent. So, with a trembling hand, she printed four characters below his message.

Why?

Dropping the pen with a nervous giggle, she waited with baited breath to see what her soulmate would respond with.  It took the longest two minutes of Rose’s life, but eventually he (she assumed it was a he; most girls had far better handwriting) replied.

Hello?

Hi!  She quickly scribbled back.

This is Came through after a moment, though it seemed like an unfinished thought.

weird strange different new.  Her mate seemed perplexed, though she appreciated that he seemed to be trying not to insult her right off the bat.

Yep.  Do you write notes on your hand often?  She asked. This was the first time she’d noticed it, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything without knowing what was the trigger to initiate the bond.

Sometimes, if it’s important.  You?

Drawings, but that’s it.  She admitted.

You draw?

Yes.

Well?

At this point, Rose had to roll up her sleeve to continue the conversation, considering her response all the while.  After a few moments hesitation, she doodled a simple rose.

Is that a rose?

Yes.

Why?

She paused only for a second, before reminding herself that they were soulmates – even if they’d never met, she could trust him.

It’s me.

You’re a flower?

No – it’s my name.

Rose?

Yeah.

Your name is Rose?

Yeah.

She briefly considered leaving it there, but decided to go for broke.

Tyler.

Uh, actually, I’m James.

No, Rose Tyler.

Oh.  James Noble. Hi.

Hi!

Can I ask you something?  He replied after a minute.

Sure.

How old are you?  She froze, nervous.

How old are you?  Rose asked instead of answering.

15. She instantly blushed, sure that he would think she was just a kid.

12.

After that, she didn’t hear from him, though she spent twenty minutes staring at her arm, hoping for a reaction.  Finally the bell rang, signaling the end of the period she skipped and the start of her lunch break; shouldering her bag, she walked quickly to the cafeteria, going through the lunch line by rote and finding her friends.  A little hurt at his lack of response, she resolutely decided to focus on the rest of the school day, and maybe check when she got home.

In the end, she made it ten minutes into history class before checking her arm, pleasantly surprised to find a response.

Oh.  Ok.

I was just a little worried – the exclamation points made me think you might be a bit younger, which would be weird.

Well, it’d be weird now – not in like, 10 years.

Well, maybe still in 10 years – it would’ve depended on how much younger.

But 3 years isn’t that big a deal now.  At least for talking.

Hello?

Rose?

I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings – also, for disappearing. I was trying to figure out what to say when my teacher announced a pop quiz.  I hope you don’t think

The writing stopped there, but there was an arrow pointing to the left.  It took a moment, but then she realized what it meant and twisted to see her forearm, where the message finished.

that I was rejecting you.  Because I’m not.  I was just a little thrown.

Rose?

I really am sorry – once we meet (if we meet – was that too presumptuous?) you’ll realize that I’ve got a bit of a gob, and it can sometimes take off without me.

Though, I suppose, in this case it’s my hand that’s got away from me.

Please, Rose, don’t let me have ruined this on day one…

It was the final message that truly got her, and she practically knocked all of her books off her desk to scramble for her pen.

Sorry!  Remembering belatedly his comment about the exclamation points, she quickly scribbled the whole word out, replacing it with, Sorry.  I was at lunch, and didn’t see your message til now.

So you don’t hate me already?  It was his fastest response yet, and Rose felt bad for making him worry.

No.  Not at all.  She only hesitated a moment, before adding a smiley face.

Good!

“Something to share with the class, Miss Tyler?”

Rose’s head jerked up, her smile falling as she realized the entire class, including her teacher, were staring at her.

“Uh, no?”  She said meekly.

The teacher raised an eyebrow, but moved on.  “Please try to pay more attention, Miss Tyler – the test is on Friday, as you’ll recall.”

As subtly as she could, Rose glanced down at her arm, ready to tell James that she couldn’t talk until after school, only to see a note from him.

Don’t want to randomly disappear on you again – I don’t think I can talk write until after classes are done for the day.  Can we speak write tonight?

She managed to scrawl back a hasty OK before turning her attention to the front of the class.  History was not her best subject, and she needed to ace the test on Friday to pass with an acceptable grade.

That didn’t stop her from daydreaming about life with her soulmate, though.

Thanks for reading so far!  I’m excited about what I’ve got coming up for our young couple - I’m already written up through chapter 8 :)

Any suggestions for a title would be appreciated.  (No, seriously - please help!!)  

Also, if anyone would be interested in being a beta, please let me know.

[onedelicateskeleton]

Men who do that horrible thing where they squeeze your hand incredibly hard to prove their dominance are the literal worst.

I have arthritis. I am 26 years old and I have arthritis, among many other health issues. I also work six days a week at a job I love selling Polish baked goods and pure raw honey.

Sure, on a daily basis I have at least one Polish person get angry at me because I'm not Polish, and one Italian person get angry at me because I'm not selling cannolis, I'm selling kolaczkis. Seriously. You don't go to McDonald's for pizza, and you don't have to be a cup of coffee to work at Starbucks. I'm just a young woman doing my job and doing it very well, i'm not doing anything wrong by being who I am and selling the things my company sells.

Anyway, one of the biggest things that irritates me is when I get harassed about our honey. The honey is all pure, raw, uncooked, unfiltered, and totally natural. We are partnered with beekeepers everywhere from the state we are based out of to Brazil. We have honey from all over the place.

People, but particularly man, love to quiz me about our honey, how it's made, and who makes it. Bees make it. Bees. Our beekeepers take care of collecting it, and my direct boss, the owner of the company, bottles it all himself. I've been to our bottling facility (it's a nice old barn on the other boss's quaint little farm).

So yesterday some *lovely* grumpy old man came by my honey stand. He was looking at the honey, so I started to explain about it being pure and whatever.

He instantly started telling me that he couldn't trust anything I said if the honey wasn't made by Amish people. I said I'd never asked if our beekeepers were Amish or not, but that the honey was *made* by bees and collected by humans. He more or less demanded that I tell him that the honey was made by Amish people. All while he was calling me a liar and saying our honey must be made with sugar if it wasn't made by Amish people.

I explained that I would not tell him what he wanted to hear because then I actually would be lying. I also pointed out that since I was refusing to lie just to make a sale that maybe he should just try one of the samples of the honey to see for himself but it was real. Naturally, he refused. He decided to buy a bottle of our buckwheat honey. I rang up the sale and gave him his bag. He promised me that when he proved it was fake he would be back to tell me.

At that point he started muttering something about fake people and living a genuine life and only wanting to interact with real people and real things. Whatever. What a fucking looney. Finally he decided he was going, and I was glad that he would be. He held out his hand for a handshake. I don't love shaking hands, but I figured it would be the fastest way to get rid of him, so like an idiot I held out my own hand.

There was another man waiting patiently to buy four honey sticks, who's eyes went wide as I proceeded to start sobbing hysterically. This mean older man squeezed my hand so hard he made me cry. I have waited tables, been a life insurance agent, and been in customer service for years. Jerks don't make me cry. Well, at least not jerks who don't physically hurt me. I think I can be forgiven for crying just this once.

"Ouch!" I yelped as I started sobbing.

"Did I hurt you?" The mean man demanded, suddenly looking very unhappy in an entirely new way.

"I have arthritis! That was too hard! You squeezed too hard!"

I turned to the next guy in line with his four honey sticks, ignoring everything that mean man said after that point. I don't know if he was complaining or apologizing. I don't care.

As soon as the honey sticks were paid for, I left my booth and ran across the way to the pretzel stand to get a cup of ice and make an ice pack. The girl at the pretzel stand was freaked out, but gave me my ice and told me she hoped I felt better. When I turned back around I could see the mean man booking it out of the building.

I hope his little power-play taught him a lesson. His behavior was witnessed by another man in his age group, I hope he was embarrassed. I hope he was horrified. I spent the next 40 minutes crying at work, and as of today my hand is back in a heavy duty brace, and my fingers are so swollen I can't take my rings off.

Why do grown men who should know better act like that? I realize that I'm quite young and still look relatively healthy, but why would you ever squeeze some stranger's hand that hard?What are you trying to prove?

That's strange man got to hurt me and walk away because through my haze of pain I wasn't thinking about taking his information or holding him up in any way and potentially calling Security. That mean man is maybe going to do that again to somebody. Why are people like that?

I love what I do, but now I'm in a brace for I don't know how long, and I'm probably too afraid to give another handshake ever. Why would some old man who should have known better hurt me? I did nothing to deserve that. I'm physically hurt, I'm emotionally hurt, I am angry.

Fuck you mean old man. Fuck you.

[sage-nebula]

These are Trainer Cards I made up for a Pokémon AU a little while ago, but I’ve updated some of them a tad based on information we received in the guidebook. Explanations for the team choices go under the cut.

KEITH:

Pyroar — Specifically a female pyroar (as shown), to represent the Red Lion. Not only is pyroar the only actual lion the Pokémon series has to date, but it’s a fire-type, which is perfect for the Red Lion, who is considered the Guardian Spirit of Fire. Additionally, pyroar are said to “viciously threaten any challenger”, which fits with how Keith never backs down from a challenge and how the Red Lion is the most difficult to handle, and females are said to protect the pride’s cubs, which fits with the Red Lion constantly chasing after Keith whenever he’s in extreme danger.

Aegislash — Keith has an affinity for blades, which means that giving him a honedge (which he would eventually evolve into aegislash) is perfect. I chose a shiny aegislash specifically because I figure this could represent his special knife / sword—you know, the one with the mark of Marmora on it. Since shiny aegislash has a black blade, which is close to the dark steel of the Marmora blade, I felt it aesthetically fitting. Finally, aegislash’s pokédex entries state that aegislash can detect innate qualities of leadership within a person, and that “according to legend, whoever it recognizes is destined to become king”. Given that Keith is going to step up as the next co-leader of Voltron (alongside Allura), I feel it appropriate.

Charizard — Charizard is fire/flying, which I feel represents both the element Keith is most often associated with (fire), as well as the fact that he is the best pilot of his generation (and proves it on the daily). As a species, charizard are known to seek strong opponents, but they’re also known to not (willingly) turn their flames on those weaker than themselves (according to the pokédex, at least). This fits Keith, who is always up for a challenge, yet is not violent or prone to hurting those who can’t defend themselves. Finally, I imagine that Keith could mega evolve his charizard, and if he did, I see him mega evolving him into the fire/dragon type ‘Zard X, particularly since ‘Zard X is more powerful than ‘Zard Y. (Also serves as a bit of a tribute to my favorite character of all time, whom Keith has quite a bit in common with, heh.)

Hippowdon — According to the guidebook, Keith’s favorite animals are hippos, and therefore it’s necessary that he have a hippowdon on his team. Otherwise? There’s no reason for this. He just likes hippos. That said, he did spend a year living in a desert, and hippodown are ground-types; it’s possible that he captured hippowdon during that time.

Talonflame — Another fire/flying, like charizard, though this one can’t mega evolve. Talonflame is a bird of prey, and more accurately is based on the peregrine falcon, which is one of the (if not the) fastest fliers in the avian kingdom, at least when it comes to diving. I’ve seen some headcanons around fandom of Keith with birds, and I agree that it’s a nice image—but only if those birds are raptors, and specifically one similar to talonflame. Thus, I could see him with a talonflame, perhaps also acquired once he left the Garrison, and this guy started hanging around.

Houndoom — Lastly, I do still think Keith would like dogs, even if they’re not his favorites (albeit I think he would prefer bigger dogs, like shepherds and/or huskies—or maybe not even domesticated dogs at all, maybe wolves), and I think that houndoom would be a good fit therefore. Another fire-type (thus fitting with the elemental theme), but also with a dark-typing, which makes houndoom seem highly intimidating regardless of how sweet the individual is (rather like Keith himself, I feel). I also feel that houndoom could be a point to the fact that Keith is biologically part Galra, in that the fact that houndoom is a dog makes it seem approachable, but that dark-type nature makes it frightening. (As well, everyone trusted Keith, but once his heritage was revealed, certain people were suddenly wary.)

SHIRO:

Absol — Absol is not technically a cat, per se (I think that absol has both feline and canine features), but it’s the closest thing to a representative of the Black Lion that I could think of. (Well, I was at first thinking of luxray, but …) It fits in terms of both color scheme and features, even if it doesn’t fit in type. That said, when absol mega evolves it gains wings, so even though it’s not a flying-type, that aspect is still fitting, considering the Black Lion’s special power. (And hence why I chose Mega Absol as the image on the trainer card.) Finally, there’s something about the lore surrounding absol (that it is said to bring about natural disasters, when in fact it warns of them, but that people hate it for this and it has developed a reclusive and shy nature as a result) that reminds me of Shiro. I just feel it fitting.

Luxray — The original idea I had for the Black Lion’s representation due to color scheme (it has some black in its fur), and type (electricity = lightning = sky = Guardian Spirit of the Sky). As an electric-type, luxray is fitting, but I also feel that luxray is a good fit due to the fact that it is protective and sharp. Luxray, according to the pokédex, are known to track down prey and their lost young, which I feel fits with how Shiro is willing to tackle any danger if it means protecting the rest of his team, both now and in his backstory. As an added bonus, luxray is a feline, and according to the guidebook, Shiro is a cat person.

(Midday) Lycanroc — Perhaps a bit odd, due to the fact that lycanroc is a rock-type, but I chose lycanroc because of the quiz on the Voltron site. When asked which animal he would transform into if he was transformed into an animal, Shiro’s answer was “wolf”. And since lycanroc is a wolf pokémon, I felt it appropriate. I specifically went with the midday form because the midnight form is known for being more uncontrollable and violent, whereas the midday form has unflinching loyalty, which I felt fit Shiro better. As for the coloring, I went with the shiny form because I felt it was more aesthetically accurate.

Altaria — Altaria fits the type theme (which is supposed to be flying), while at the same time being dragon-type, which adds an extra bit of oomph to its power. More than that, though, altaria are known for being fluffy cloud dragons, and the pokédex entries state that if an altaria bonds with a human, then sometimes it will wrap the human in a soft hug and hum. I feel like Shiro deserves a pokémon that will give him fluffy cloud hugs, especially one that can sing in a beautiful voice while doing so. He deserves an altaria, tbh.

Braviary — Another flying-type / majestic bird of prey, braviary are known to fight endlessly in order to protect those important to them. The pokédex entries state that, regardless of injuries braviary sustain, braviary will not stop fighting if it is for the sake of their friends / those they care about. The pokédex entries also state that the more scars a braviary has, the more respect it gains from its peers, and that the people of Alola used to revere braviary as “the hero of the sky”. All of these things are fitting for Shiro. I could imagine him having an old, battle-scarred braviary that he bonds with, especially now that he has some scars of his own (and was known as the Champion in the Galra gladiator ring).

Bisharp — Finally, bisharp, to represent the arm the Galra gave him. I feel that bisharp is one he might have picked up when escaping the Galra base. Perhaps all of his pokémon had been left on Earth (in Keith’s care?), and so Ulaz gave him a bisharp so that he would be able to protect himself. Something like that. I feel like bisharp is a fitting pokémon for that, and one that it would take time for Shiro to fully bond with, but that he would eventually come to trust with anything.

ALLURA:

Sylveon — Allura doesn’t have a Lion (though she’ll be piloting Blue in short order ;D), but I feel that sylveon is a good stand-in for a Lion she would have, or at least will fit the “pink Paladin” theme she’ll have going on once she steps up to piloting Blue and still has her pink armor. As a fairy-type, sylveon seems kind of mystical, and its pokédex entries all state that it can release a soothing aura, which I feel would be appropriate for Allura.

(Alolan) Ninetales — Ninetales themselves are shrouded in lore and legend, particularly since they’re based on the mythical kitsune, but Alolan ninetales in specific has such a mystical beauty that, according to the pokédex, it was once “revered as a deity incarnate”. I feel that this is fitting for Allura, who was seen as a goddess by the Arusians (and still may be, to an extent?). Additionally, Alolan ninetales is beautiful (just like Allura is beautiful), and I feel that the ice/fairy typing would be a good fit for her, particularly since she can be downright frosty when she’s upset with someone (as we saw by the way she froze Keith out after learning of his true heritage).

Gardevoir — Gardevoir are powerful, graceful, and beautiful, and all three of those words are words that can be used to describe Allura. Their powers of being able to see into the future are useful, and they’re said to fight fiercely in defense of their trainers, which is the type of pokémon I feel the crown princess of Altea would most certainly have by her side. Lastly, she can mega evolve gardevoir to really bring hurt down on her enemies.

Mienshao — Mienshao are graceful, beautiful fighters. I chose this one in tribute to the fact that Allura has some kickass close combat skills, and I feel that those skills—plus how graceful and fluid Allura is when fighting—translate well in this pokémon.

Cinccino — Technically cincinno are based on chinchillas, not mice, but I still feel that cinccino is an adorable little representative of Allura’s pet mice regardless, so. I went with it.

Sigilyph — Lastly, sigilyph are said to be leftovers from an ancient civilization, there to patrol and protect. I imagine that a sigilyph might have still been alive in the castle after 10,000 years, and that Allura could have decided to train it thereafter. It felt fitting, anyway.

PIDGE:

Leafeon — The stand-in for the Green Lion, given that leafeon is feline-esque, is a grass-type, and is therefore fitting (since the Green Lion is the Guardian Spirit of the Forest).

Rotom — It’s Rover! I felt that rotom was a fitting substitute for Rover given that it’s an electric-type, and its dual-typing of ghost means that it can also possess various electronics and gadgets, which would be useful in helping Pidge hack things. Plus, I can easily see a little rotom following her around, can’t you?

Sceptile — I admit, I did waffle for a bit over whether this position should go to pidgeot instead given her (nick)name, but ultimately I felt that sceptile—and, specifically, Mega Sceptile—was a much better fit. On top of having the right typing of grass, sceptile are known for being able to grow and nurture forests, which fits with the Green Lion’s ability to grow roots and plants (even though leafeon is the stand-in for the Green Lion, I still feel this is important). Additionally, Mega Sceptile has the ability Lightningrod, which attracts electricity to it. This is a good representation of the fusion of nature and tech, as demonstrated in the episode with the Olkari. I find it really fitting, therefore, that Pidge have a (mega) sceptile.

Emolga — I wanted Pidge to have at least one more electric-type, and dual-type electric/flying emolga fit the bill, particularly since the pokédex states that emolga live in treetops, which once again brings the nature/tech fusion to mind.

Breloom — Breloom are poisonous fighters who can and will rough you up, which I feel is very fitting for Pidge, since she is tiny, but fierce. Additionally, while Pidge clearly uses her tech and gadgetry to fight from a distance sometimes, her Bayard has her doing a lot of up-close-and-personal fighting as well, which I feel suits breloom’s style rather nicely.

Decidueye — According to the guidebook, Pidge’s favorite animals are owls, and therefore it’s fitting that she has an owl on her team. Decidueye is a grass-type besides, so it fits with the theme and everything. Perfect.

LANCE:

Vaporeon — The stand-in for the Blue Lion, of course, given that vaporeon is a feline-esque, water-type pokémon.

Sharpedo — According to the guidebook, Lance’s favorite animals are sharks, so it’s necessary that he have a sharpedo on his team, particularly considering that it’s a water-type and everything. Sharpedo are capable of mega evolution and I considered changing Lance’s mega evolving pokémon to sharpedo, but I still like how blastoise has the water cannons (since Lance is the sharpshooter), so Lance’s sharpedo can stay a regular sharpedo and still be awesome that way.

Blastoise — Similarly, blastoise is a water-type with huge guns/cannons coming out of its shell, allowing it to shoot, rather than spray, its opponents. Blastoise is also capable of mega evolution, so I figure that this is the one that Lance would mega evolve.

Milotic — Milotic is a water-type that evolves once its beauty is maxed out, which I feel is fitting for Lance, who cares about his appearance. Even more fitting is the fact that milotic evolves from feebas, who is known for being ugly and useless by those around it. Not that Lance is ugly or useless, of course, before anyone gets upset, but rather, Lance has insecurities and issues that make him feel as though he might be useless at times. Therefore, feebas evolving into milotic can be representative of Lance growing past his insecurities and seeing himself as a truly useful member of the team.

Swanna — Swanna is a water/flying, giving Lance a flier on his team, and is known for being elegant and graceful. Again, this is something that I feel Lance would really want on his team.

Primarina — I feel that primarina would be an excellent choice for Lance because it’s based on mythical mermaids or sirens, so on top of being beautiful, perhaps he picked up a popplio on the mermaid adventure he had at the beginning of season two, and eventually evolved it all the way to primarina. It could happen.

HUNK:

Persian — Unfortunately, there are no ground-type feline pokémon (or at least, none that I can think of off-hand, and I’m going to be ashamed of myself if there’s one I’m forgetting). The closest that we get is leafeon, but leafeon is already standing in for the Green Lion. Therefore, I chose persian to stand in for the Yellow Lion, given that persian is a big, yellow cat. Maybe we’ll get a ground-type feline in Gen VIII, but until then, we have persian.

Donphan — Donphan are said to have such thick armor that they can barely be scratched, according to the pokédex, and I feel that this is fitting considering the fact that the Yellow Lion has the strongest armor of all the Lions. Although persian is standing in as the Yellow Lion, I still find it fitting for Hunk to have such a tank on his team.

Garchomp — Garchomp have a dual-typing of ground/dragon, and are extremely tough and formidable. They can also mega evolve, and as such, garchomp is a fitting member of Hunk’s team. (Since, in case it wasn’t obvious, I want every member to have a pokémon capable of mega evolution, heh.)

Excadrill — Excadrill are ground/steel, and I felt that fitting for Hunk, given that Hunk is an engineer (as well as being the Paladin who pilots the Guardian Spirit of Land). Excadrill could certainly help Hunk work on various ships and other mechanical things, and I think the two could bond quite nicely over that.

Golurk — Golurk are ground/ghost, but more importantly, they were created by an ancient civilization in order to protect people and pokémon. Once again, the Yellow Lion is the Lion that is most ready to defend the others; its Paladin is one who supports the rest of the team, and will sacrifice himself for the sake of his teammates. Golurk was no doubt based on the Iron Giant (Golurk was designed by an American, so yes, this is very possible), and the Iron Giant sacrifices itself to save the planet in the climax of the film. (This movie has been out for years, I’m not spoiler tagging that.) I feel that golurk is a fitting member for Hunk’s team, therefore, particularly given how protective he is over the rest of the team / those he cares about.

Stoutland — Hunk is a dog person according to the guidebook, and so it makes sense that he would have a big ol’ doggo on his team. I considered going with either rockruff or lycanroc due to the rock-typing, but Shiro already has a lycanroc and I felt lycanroc was too fitting for him to change. Additionally, something about stoutland just seems appropriate for Hunk. I feel like he would like a stoutland, since they’re big and floofy and great for cuddles. I really like the image of Hunk cuddling with his big pupper, so stoutland it is.

CORAN:

Ursaring — Coran has a tendency to go Papa Bear over Allura, and he’s also protective of the rest of the Paladins as well. For this reason, I felt that giving him a big bear pokémon was appropriate, and ursaring fit the bill.

Claydol — Claydol is said to be from an ancient civilization, which I felt fits with the fact that Altea is long gone. Claydol is also a psychic-type, which fits with the Alteans’ ability to manipulate quintessence and the like.

Alakazam — Alakazam is highly intelligent and has a fantastic mustache, both traits of which fit Coran rather nicely. Alakazam can also mega evolve, so there’s the mega evolver of Coran’s team.

Bronzong — Once again, bronzong is from an ancient civilization. Bronzong can also, according to its pokédex entries, open portals—and while it’s usually Allura who opens wormholes in the castle, Coran is the one who knows how to repair the castle so that it can create those wormholes, so I figured this still fit rather nicely.

Oranguru — Oranguru is another highly intelligent pokémon who only respects experienced trainers, and is thus best suited for veterans, which Coran would be. I figured this was a nice fit, therefore.

Klefki — And lastly, I figure that Coran might have a klefki that keeps various keys around the castle. If not that, then I figured that having a mischievous klefki on his team could be rather amusing. Either way, I feel it works.

[fuzzylikesmedia]

Summer anime 2017

 All the summer anime has premiered now, except for Hell Girl season 4 (7/14) and The Reflection (7/22), and I'm going to be away this weekend, so I might not watch Hell Girl until next week anyways. So it seems like a good time to write up some brief thoughts on the shows I watched, which is nearly all of them. The exceptions are:

HiDive exclusives, I didn't want to get another subscription

Netflix shows which won't be available legally for months (fuck you Netflix for that, at least I have the Kakegurui manga)

Sequels I hadn't watched the original of

Symphogear, which hasn't been announced by anyone yet (as of 7/13)

I didn’t actually finish the first episode of all of them, but I tried. 

This ended up super long, because there are a lot of shows.

I’m going to go through these in order of premiere date, anything else is too hard to keep track of. I’ll include a note for the full length shows I didn’t watch as well.

Hina Logi: From Luck & Logic (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 12:00 am EDT)

This is a spinoff of Luck & Logic, which I didn’t watch, and I didn’t watch this version either. I really don’t know anything about this, you can check out the reviews on ANN.

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 9:30 am EDT)

I bailed out of this one less than 10 minutes in. It’s a bad romcom with bad animation, and I didn’t like any of the characters. I can’t recommend it at all, even if you like straight romcoms.

Kakegurui (Netflix, so probably all the episodes will be availabe early October)

First watch the OP (Sayo Yamamoto worked on it) right now: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sahqn 

I couldn’t actually watch the show, since it’s a Netflix license, but I’ve read the manga up to the latest chapter and I love it! (It’s the source of my icon). It’s very trashy, and often gay. There is a male MC, but he doesn’t really do much, and mostly exists to be the person who gets everything explained to him. Also because we never get Yumeko’s (the female MC) point of view. I highly recommend the manga and the anime.

Fate/Apocrypha (Netflix, it was announced at AX that the first batch of episodes would be available November 7th)

This is yet another Fate show, but I’ve been hearing good things. Apparently the source for this one isn’t written by Nasu, which is a point in it’s favor. I don’t really have much more to say, if you want to get into Fate stuff, I recommend Fate/Zero. I never really got into other Fate stuff.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 1:00 pm EDT. Also on Anime Strike but why would you choose that over crunchyroll???)

I watched some of Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru last fall, but it didn’t really grab me. I definitely prefer the bloody action of Katsugeki to the slice-of-life comedy of Hanamaru. I also can’t keep track of the huge number of characters the game has, so Katsugeki’s focus on a small number really helps. If you like bloody action, I recommend it. It’s one of my favorites this season.

Symphogear AXZ (no announcement yet, hopefully Crunchyroll)

This is the fourth season of Symphogear, the first 3 are on Crunchyroll. I’m currently part way through the second season. It’s magical girl action with a music focus, and I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. The premise for this fourth season seems like it could go some bad places (read: could get very transphobic), so be warned. I’d recommend checking out the first season at least, though.

Knight’s & Magic (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 11:00 am EDT)

This definitely wins a prize for the worst punctuation in an anime title I have seen. That being said, I enjoyed the first episode, but gave up partway through the second. It’s an isekai story based on a light novel, which is not a setup that inspires much hope in me, but I liked that the MC was reborn(?) as a child, rather than simply transported. If you like mecha shows check it out I guess?

Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 12:30 pm EDT)

This is a comedy sports anime that actually really surprised me. I’m probably not the best person to talk about it, so I highly recommend reading this review at Anime Feminist. I liked it, and I’m currently partway through the 2nd episode, and I think I might stick with it.

Battle Girl High School (on HiDive, Sundays at 12:30 pm EDT)

Not willing to get a HiDive subscription yet, and it doesn’t sound like this show is worth it. If you’re curious, check out the reviews at ANN and Anime Feminist.

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 11:30 am EDT)

This is a supernatural slice of life comedy, and while it’s not amazing in anyway, it’s not really bad either. If you really like this sort of comedy I’d recommend checking it out, but I’d probably recommend Inu x Boku Secret Service first.

LOVE and LIES (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Mondays at 12:00 pm EDT)

I did not like this show. It wasn’t actually painful to watch, so I finished the first episode, but I will not be watching more. The premise is based on the idea that Japan starts assigning marriage partners when kids turn 16 based on some sort of compatibility in order to fight dropping birthrates. Actually, the show specifically mentions genetic compatibility, and the whole premise has a very eugenics feel to it. On top of that, this setting is being used for a romcom. There are probably some interesting stories that could be told with this setup, but a straight romcom is not one of them. All this being said, I’m definitely watching people’s twitter reactions to the show going forward, because I’m sort of curious what kind of trainwreck this might become.

Restaurant to Another World (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 2:05 pm EDT)

This show was definitely very nice to look at, but I just couldn’t get invested in it. If you want a peaceful show about a restaurant that opens to a fantasy world once a week, then check it out. My favorite part was the dragon lapping stew from a pot, tiny in comparison to her.

Aho Girl (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 11:30 am EDT)

(short-form, 13 minutes) Even though this is a short, I still couldn’t make it all the way to the end of the first episode. It’s very 2000′s style super fast comedy, and feels super mean spirited.

Tsuredure Children (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 11:45 am EDT)

(short-form, 13 minutes) I finished this one, which was mostly cute vignettes about straight highschoolers in love, but the 3rd one made me feel really uncomfortable. Not planning on watching more.

Fastest Finger First (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 3:30 pm EDT)

This is a show about kids doing quiz bowl, which wasn’t a thing at my school, but this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a math competition anime. The main character was likable enough, though the girl was more interesting. This feels like it might become a girl who is experienced at x teaches boy how to x, and he is the best ever at x, sort of thing. I do want to check out the second episode though. An interesting thing to me was the voice of the girl. She’s apparently a rookie voice actress, and sounds very different from the typical anime high school girl voice.

Netsuzou Trap -NTR- (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 8:30 am EDT)

(short-form, 9 minutes) This show is super super SUPER trashy yuri, and I loved it. I can’t really recommend it, but I’m definitely sticking with it. 

Saiyuki Reload Blast (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:00 am EDT)

This is an adaptation of the latest Saiyuki manga. I have never read or watched any Saiyuki before, but I watched this episode. It had a very 00′s feel to it, from the character designs to the dialogue. I imagine that this is the sort of thing that you watch if you already like Saiyuki, or maybe if you miss the feel of anime from the early 00′s. I’m not sticking with it.

Dive!! (on Anime Strike, Thursdays at sometime, anime strike is bad at sharing details)

I wanted to like this show, but it just wasn’t good. It’s very clearly trying to get the Free! crowd, but is hindered by bad animation and boring story. It’s this season’s Noitamina show, by the way. The most notable thing about it for me, was that it actually managed to trigger my fear of heights, which I don’t think has ever happened to me with an anime before. I think it must be because diving (off a 10 ft board) was a real thing I was too scared to do (and probably still am too scared to do).

Convenience Store Boy Friends (on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 3:05 pm EDT)

This feels like the most boring possible show you could make from it’s title. You could have personified stores, personified products, but instead it’s just a quite boring highschool romance. They don’t even work at a convenience store! They just occasional stop by there! Also the guys working there looked way more interesting than any of the main characters. Possibly the most boring premiere I watched all the way through.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits (on HiDive, Mondays at 9:00 am EDT)

I didn’t watch this one because it was a HiDive exclusive, but I’ve actually read a lot of good things about it, which is not what I would have expected with that name. Still not worth the HiDive subscription though. You can check out the review at ANN and Anime Feminist.

Made in Abyss (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Fridays at 10:00 am EDT)

This was a super beautiful premiere. It’s a really gorgeous looking fantasy series. It didn’t completely grab me, but I think that’s because it requires me to be in a mode where I can actually give it full focus, which makes it harder to watch. I can’t recommend this show yet, however, because I have heard that the manga goes really bad places. I’ve heard that the first episode already removed some of the skeevy stuff, but I can’t recommend this until I can see where it goes.

18if (on Crunchyroll, Fridays at 10:00 am EDT)

I gave up about 10 minutes into this one. It’s a very dream sequency show, but it doesn’t have the animation quality or pacing to make it work for me. If you like surreal stuff in general, I’d say check it out to see whether it grabs you, but know that it might just feel really boring.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Fridays at 11:00 am EDT)

I fucking loved this!!!!! It’s my favorite premiere so far, and I can’t wait for more. It’s not a good show, but it’s super fun. This review at Anime Feminist explains what I like about the show. It has the feel of some of my favorite stuff from the early 00′s, and it’s super campy, and I love it.

Chronos Ruler (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 3:00 pm EDT)

This is not a good show. It has super bad animation, convoluted plot, overly expository and over dramatic dialogue (ok, half these things were also true of Vatican Miracle Examiner, I admit). I finished the whole episode, but I really have zero interest in watching more. It just isn’t offering anything that other shows aren’t doing better this season.

Altair: A Record of Battles (on Anime Strike, Fridays at sometime)

This is a very good show, but on that I really need brainpower to watch, which means that I will probably drop it at some point. It’s very nice looking, and I love political intrigue, but it doesn’t feel like easy watching. Check it out if you enjoy political intrigue stuff.

Hitorijime My Hero (on Anime Strike in the US, HiDive in some other territories, Saturdays at 11:00 am EDT)

This was decent BL. Not good, but not terrible either. The main couple is a student-teacher relationship, so be warned of that, I guess. It just felt super plain  to me. Also super confusing. The first episode felt like it jumped around a lot chronologically, and it was really hard to understand what order things happened in. I’m not continuing with it.

Welcome to the Ballroom (on Anime Strike, Sundays(?) at sometime)

I watched the early premier of this on Twitch, which had desynced subtitles, which was super annoying. I don’t know if that’s still true of the version up on anime strike, but it’s frustrating that this is still a problem for them. And with a hyped up premiere as well!!! The show itself is a shonen sports anime about ballroom dancing. The character designs are very lanky and weird looking, but I sort of like the style. It just didn’t really grab me. I think I didn’t like the main character enough to care about him. And that I don’t care about ballroom dancing at all.

A Centaur’s Life (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 10:30 am EDT)

This was a sort of weird show. It starts off with a lesbian kiss, and does a school comedy sort of things for the first half. The second half is that plus world building, which brings in a bunch of weirdly dystopian elements. Like talking about past injustices being illegal. So I’m going to keep on watching this for the little gay bits and to see where the hell it’s going.

Princess Principal (on Anime Strike in the US, HiDive in some other territories, Sundays at 10:30 am EDT)

I really loved this. It’s a spy show about girls, so I’m not at all surprised, but it’s still a nice feeling. The OP has hints of gayness, which is good. And the show in general is a fun spy show. It’s like what I wish Joker Game had been. I really recommend checking this one out. It’s another one of my favorites.

Angel’s 3Piece! (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 8:30 am EDT)

This most frustrating thing about this is how good is was for a lot of it. Like I wasn’t expecting anything from the summary, but then the first half of the show was pretty neat, and the music was good, but it’s by the author of Ro-Kyu-Bu, which should have told me everything I needed to know. As should the episode title: “Heart Throbbing for Elementary School Kids!” That title probably says everything you need to know.

In Another World with my Smartphone (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 9:00 am EDT)

I gave up on this one super quickly. I just don’t care about another dude dying and going to a fantasy world and suddenly getting a harem. I just don’t.

New Game!! (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 10:00 am EDT)

Sequel to New Game!, which I never finished. It was a cute show about women making games though. Maybe I should try to watch more of it sometime. ANN has a review of the first episode of this.

The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 12:30 pm EDT)

(short-form, 3 minutes) I guess this is related to The Irresponsible Captain Tylor? I never watched that either. I watched this, but didn’t really pay much attention. I guess if you watched the original thing check this out???

Magical Circle Guru Guru (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 2:05 pm EDT)

So apparently there was an older version of this that aired in 1994, but this is a complete reboot, not a sequel, so you don’t need any familiarity with the original. The sense of humor reminded me a lot of Senyu, with a heavy focus on classic rpg video game elements as well. It’s a very fast paced shouty sort of humor, but it was a fun first episode. It didn’t really do anything I haven’t seen before, so I’m probably dropping it.

Light of the Clione (on Anime Strike, Tuesdays(?) at sometime)

(short-form, 9 minutes) I was interested in this one based on what I read of the premise, but so far it’s been two students feeling sorry for, but not helping, a girl getting bullied. Since it’s a short, it has a much lower bar to clear for me to stick with it, so I probably will. The character designs feel sort of off, though, and the animation isn’t very good.

Ikemen Sengoku: Bromances Across Time (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 10:45 am EDT)

(short-form, 5 minutes) CG short about a dude who gets transported back in time. Based on an otome game, apparently. Otome games need more full length adaptations, they keep on getting these short form series instead. Anyways, this show doesn’t really have anything to recommend it.

Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:15 am EDT)

(short-form, 4 minutes) Cute short that has a harem set up, accept someone transformed the boy into a cat, and no one knows how to turn him back. Funny, cute, and short enough for me to keep watching.

My First Girlfriend is a Gal (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:30 am EDT)

This show is not good. You should watch Please Tell Me! Galko-chan instead. Seriously, the most interesting part of this show is the bedazzled censorship objects. I bailed out about five minutes in, because I couldn’t stand the main character and his friends. There is nothing to recommend this show. Even if you want weird censorship items, you can watch Seven Mortal Sins instead.

Classroom of the Elite (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 12:00 pm EDT)

I was expecting to quit out of this show partway through, since it really didn’t look at all interesting to me. I also hated the first five minutes or so. But I actually really liked the rapport between the two main characters, probably because it reminds me of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. I curious to see where the main plot heads as well. I think it’s worth getting through the opening to see what the show has to offer, because it definitely got better after that.

GAMERS! (on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 11:30 am EDT)

This is another show I was expected to not make it all he way through, but instead I really liked it. It’s about a high school gaming club, and the super popular girl trying to recruit the main character to join. I think what really worked for me was how relatable the main character felt at times. He’s a “casual” gamer, and feels really intimidated by how intense the club members are. I really understand that feeling. I’m looking forward to more of this show.

And that’s it! I’ll probably wait to write about Hell Girl and The Reflection until after both of them air, at which point I’ll also have a better idea of what shows I’m actually going to keep.

[bunnyandbirb]

Birb’s Summer 2017 Sports (Anime)

My first distinct memory of trying to play sports involves trying to win a game of soccer by ignoring the ball and repeatedly kicking the opposing players in the shins instead.

During four years at my basketball-crazed college, I never went to a single game (my priorities were with Overwatch and figuring out how to survive the rest of the month on two dollars.) I remember once going to watch the Denver Nuggets play, and then waking up when it was all over. So yeah. I might not be a “sports person.” That being said, I fucking love sports anime. They’re super straightforward, feel-good shows and I’m a sucker for underdog stories. I would call them a guilty pleasure, except I don’t feel guilty about watching them at all. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re all good.

I watched all of the sports anime that debuted this summer (in one night) and here are my sleep-deprived opinions:

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun (Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun) Studio Hibari

Aoyama is a freshman in high school, a genius soccer player, and has a crippling obsession with cleanliness. I was very into the premise of this show when I first read the description, which is why I watched it first. I’m still glad that I did watch it first, so I could get my disappointment out of the way faster. Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun isn’t a true sports anime, more like a comedy anime with sports. The pacing in the first episode is pretty atrocious, barely introducing the main character before suddenly getting into a game with an enemy team (that I think I’m supposed to care about?) and then wrapping it all up in less than ten minutes. Basically the whole thing is a series of setups for jokes, and if they don’t make you laugh, it’s a little bit awkward.

The ‘clean freak’ joke started getting stale near the end (and it had only been one episode). There was even a moment where they actually tried to take it seriously (it’s so TRAGIC that he wants to play SOCCER when he’s a GERMAPHOBE), and that just made me confused. Aoyama also looks suspiciously similar to Haru from Free!, and it doesn’t help that they both have that quiet, unfazeable, non-personality.

I don’t even remember the names of the other characters, because they weren’t particularly interesting. There was an angry guy who was always angry that Aoyama didn’t want to be a dirtyboi, generic side characters, and then some girl who stalks the MC because he talked to her once. The best part of the show was the ending, which was an obvious nod back to old-school sports anime and was pretty entertaining.

The show’s art/animation isn’t that bad, which is a shame because I’m never going to be watching more of it. I’d say this is a mediocre show that I can see people liking if it matches their sense of humor. I’m not someone who finds gag comedy particularly funny, which doesn’t make me the right audience for this kind of thing.

Ballroom e Youkoso (Welcome to the Ballroom) Production I.G.

It’s an anime about ballroom dancing. The first time I heard of this, I immediately thought this was coming out to snatch up the audience of Yuri on Ice. I still don’t think I’m wrong, but Ballroom e Youkoso feels both similar and very different from both that show and Haikyuu!!, another product of this studio (and one of my favorite shows in this genre.)

Our main character is Tatara Fujita, a kid (supposedly in eighth grade, clearly doesn’t look it) with no hobbies and no idea what to do in life. He almost gets beaten up but is saved by Sengoku, a professional dancer and owner of a nearby dance studio. He eventually gets a lesson and then watches a video of Sengoku dance, which gets him hooked on dancin’ (at least it isn’t drugs.)

To understate it a bit, this show is VERY DRAMATIC. Maybe I should have expected an anime about dancing to ham it up a little, but this was a level of drama that I haven’t seen in a sports anime in a long while. They stretch limbs like nobody’s business to emphasize the ‘fluidity of dance’ or something (I don’t really know) and I laughed out loud at how silly some of it looked. Not to the say that the animation is bad. The whole CLAMP-esque rubber limbs syndrome is clearly a stylistic choice, and everything looks pretty good when they’re not dancing.

But it’s not just the animation. The plot is also VERY DRAMATIC. The entire show is a lot heavier than a lot of other sports anime, and all of the characters are way more passionate about dancing than I’ve ever been about anything. And honestly, I did get a little caught up in it. The music in this show is pretty good, and definitely contributed to how invested I got in the scenes. The characters are likeable so far. There is a bit of fanservice every now and then, which is annoying but I’ll deal with it. This is a true underdog story, and while I can predict how the rest of the show will go by watching these first five episodes, I’m sure I won’t be bored following through with it.

Dive!! (Not-Free!) Zero-G

Okay, so the alternate name isn’t really Not-Free!, but it should be. This show is mostly boring and a little hilarious (for unintentional reasons.) Dive!! is an anime about… diving, and is centered around a middle schooler named Tomoki Sakai. His combined middle/high school diving club will shut down unless one of its members can get into the Olympics within a year, which is totally reasonable.

Where to even start with this.

It’s almost impossible not to compare Dive!! to Free!, because it begs you to compare them. I can imagine they had a list of how to one-up Free! and, judging by the show, came up with this:

MORE ABS. Everyone gets a 10-pack.

Swim jammers? Pussy shit. Speedos only.

You like high schoolers who look like college students? We got some that look like they’re 12.

Add another exclamation mark in the title, that’ll really get ‘em going.

I’m not exactly sure what Tomoki’s character is supposed to be. In the first episode, he is walking to the diving club with his girlfriend. She starts talking to him, trying to engage him in a conversation… you know, the thing people in relationships have sometimes. He only gets like three sentences through before he starts zoning out completely and has an inner monologue about how much he loves diving. THEN when she confronts him, he looks past her, sees his beloved senpai and BLUSHES. IS THIS A BL SHOW??? IS THIS GIRL A BEARD?? But really, watching this pissboi interaction was probably the funniest thing in the entire show.

The animation is serviceable, but if they wanted to compete with KyoAni’s work on Free!, they might as well have not tried at all. All of the characters are forgettable as fuck except for one, who isn’t even a main character. Actually, I take that back. The main character’s emo twin brother is also pretty memorable, only because he spends every waking moment trying to steal MC’s girl. The majority of the show is straight-up boring; Unlike Ballroom e Youkoso, I didn’t feel any sense of tension or urgency no matter how much they tried to get me to care.

In conclusion, Dive!! sucks. Don’t watch it.

Nana maru san batsu (Fastest Finger First) TMS Entertainment

This might not be considered a “sports anime” in the traditional sense, but I would argue that’s exactly what it is. Koshiyama Shiki is a nerd enters high school and is drafted into the “Quiz Study Group”, where he learns the joys of competitive quiz bowl. So yeah, it’s basically a show about people answering trivia questions on a timer.

I’ll be honest; This show isn’t that special. It’s predictable, the characters are generic, the dialogue is pretty trash at times, and the art is decent. Pretty much everything aside from the actual tournaments crawls by at a snail’s pace, and by the third episode I was skipping past most of the scenes that didn’t have to do with quizzes. There also is some random fanservice (really? In a quiz bowl show?) and sometimes the character artist draws their heads too big for their bodies.

Despite all that, I will keep watching this show until the end. I’ve had a lot of fun learning about quiz bowl, mostly because I didn’t know anything about it before this. I’m a big fan of trivia, and I feel like I can just watch the show for that and still enjoy it without caring about whether the characters die in a fire or not. I’ll just ignore the repetitive conversations and weak romantic subplot in between tournaments.

Okay, so the two shows I said were my faves of the bunch are about ballroom dancing and quiz bowls. But my three all-time favorite sports anime are about tennis, volleyball, and football, so I’m just saying my preferences are based on the qualities of the show, not on the fact that I’m a loser.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully we’ll see some more quality sports anime in the future... or I’ll just wait for the next season of Haikyuu!!.

~Stay tuned for more nonsense~

- birb

[deltaengineering]

summer anime 2017 part 3: welcome to die

Well guess what, I ended up putting posts off for a week.

Again.

So don’t expect a lot of detail here, but do expect a lot of shows.

See also:

• part 1: we can rebuild it

• part 2: bunch of fools

18if

18if is a really weird show about a guy who hangs around people’s dreams and fixes their personal problems - sort of like Persona 4 meets Madoka’s witch mazes. This might have some visual potential if nothing else, and it tries, but what mostly sticks in the mind is that it’s very cheap and also extremely clunkily directed, with a lot of spinning camera tricks that end up looking more desperate than cool. While that does lend it a certain nightmarish weirdness, I doubt it’s entirely intentional and more importantly it makes the show not very entertaining.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits

So someone made a Love Live clone only with solo tokusatsu performance (?) instead of idols and saving the town instead of saving the school. And the main character is Kotori. Well, silly things happen all the time, but what I didn’t expect is that an anime called Action Heroine Cheer Fruits is actually pretty damn good. Shows of this type aren’t very complicated, but Cheer Fruits nails it where it counts: The characters are likeable, their misadventures are amusing, and the writing is good enough to make me care more about what happens to this town than Sakura Quest managed in half its two-season run. It’s a bit on the cheaper side, but I don’t mind if the fundamentals are this convincing. It also helps that this is written by Naruhisa Arakawa, who previously failed to convince me with active raid but definitely knows a thing or two about tokusatu. Charming and with an appropriately light touch on its silly conceit, this is the surprise of the season.

Ballroom e Youkoso 

It’s a sports shounen! About ballroom dancing...? Well, the manga is fairly well known so the shock factor wasn’t that high here, but I have to say that Ballroom e Youkoso nails the formula, the unusual sport in question makes it less boring than said formula would normally end up being, and it looks pretty amazing. I’m willing to take that chance, if everything goes right this might end up delivering on what Yuri on Ice promised for its first three episodes. Minus the gay of course, but I’m willing to give that up for a show that’s actually consistently entertaining instead. Fingers crossed.

Centaur no Nayami

Yay, it’s another monstergirl manga. This particular one ends up splitting the difference between Monster Musume and Demi-chan, meaning that it only has weird fetish undertones some of the time. Apart from that it ends up mostly boring, because the monster stuff doesn’t really matter, yet the show spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the specific evolutionary circumstances that made this universe possible. Uh, at this point I think I can just accept monstergirls at face value, thanks. The most interesting parts are some hints of this society being not as innocent as it seems, but the other 99% of time it doesn’t seem overly concerned with that: The actual content is just rather boring slice-of-life scenarios of the kind you can get elsewhere easily. I do have to say that opening with girls actually kissing for real is a new one, even if that doesn’t really go anywhere. And that’s really the long and short of it: This seems like a show that doesn’t even really aim to go anywhere, and just isn’t good or interesting enough to make the here and now worthwhile. 

Clione no Akari

This is a 1/3 length short that mostly seems like an anti-bullying PSA. The most tragic girl in the world (sick, orphan, shy, prone to tripping over obvious buckets in the middle of hallways, etc.) gets bullied on top of everything and some other guys feel bad about not helping her. The opening makes it look like everyone will learn a lesson about tomodachiship eventually. I will be nice and say that its heart is in the right place and it’s not actually bad (only extremely hamfisted), but it’s just neither well made nor unusual enough to earn back the time spent watching it; Koe no Katachi has me covered for life on anything this could possibly do.

Dive!!

Do you like ripped dudes glistening in the sun? Sure you do, that’s why you all watched Free! and that’s why we now get another show about pool sports with too many exclamation marks in the name. High diving seems to be a pretty poor choice though, because a single dive takes seconds and this show doesn’t pretend otherwise. The filler around it isn’t very promising either; main dude mostly memorable for being a dick to his girlfriend and admiring his cool senpai instead, no homo. Oh yeah, Yuri on Ice is a thing too, you know. Otherwise you learn more than you’d care to know about the spectacularly uninteresting financial structure of the high diving club, and get to watch the water surface reflecting the sun on to toned abs. Too bad that this particular effect just ends up looking like an unfortunate skin condition. All in all Dive!! is just a poor man’s version of other homoerotic sports anime for fujoshi, and I wasn’t too fond of those to begin with.

Hitorijime My Hero

Speaking of manlove, this one starts out as a fairly engaging character study of a highschooler who hangs out with street thugs because his mother is a prostitute, until the brother of his BFF beats them all up. But then the OP happens and after that it’s pretty much just straight up yaoi tropes because now the dude’s in high school and the cool guy is a teacher, I wonder where this is going. There’s a lot of unfunny komedy and so on. Yeah nah, even a toned down Super Lovers is not what I’m looking for, and laudable opening aside this brings nothing new to the table.

Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

I’ve been very mad at smugly ironic genre shows that wallow in the cheapest clichees while “deconstructing” them (i.e., just pointing them out as if that’s an excuse). But the alternative is, of course, just not doing that and playing it all straight without a hint of irony, and it turns out that that is significantly worse. So here’s your 24 minutes of isekai light novel: dude dies, goes to JRPG world and gets to keep his smartphone in complete working condition. Ha ha, I too wish my completely ordinary household item would make me the coolest dude in the universe. But this show goes the extra mile, because while a smartphone might get you some chicks in fantasy land, to get all the chicks you also have to have:

• literal god mode stat boosts

• ability to use all magical elements, an exceedingly rare feat

• access to an even rarer additional magic element on top of that

• the ability to create the irresistible potion “ice cream”

So yeah, this is the isekai power fantasy at its most naked, and apart from making our shitter in chief the most hax guy ever and dropping a huge instaharem on him, he goes beat up trash mobs because that’s what you do. Again, all of this without the slightest hint of self-awareness. Absolute garbage for garbage people from top to bottom, and completely fails to make said garbage fun.

Jikan no Shihaisha

This one at least has the looks down: When it’s an action show, the visuals are really, really cool. Honestly. However, upon further inspection it becomes apparent that this  “Chronos Ruler” here is so poorly written that it cannot be ignored. You guessed it, a lot of exposition and poorly conceived comedy ruin the eyecandy pretty quickly, and it’s all so dumb and dull that I barely remember anything but a vague stink of disappointment. It’s two guys that fight monsters, only not very well? Something about trying to turn back time but that turning out to be a bad idea? It’s all just slush. There's a twist in here that's kind of funny (probably unintentionally) so I won’t spoil it, but it’s by no means worth it.

Konbini Kareshi

Konbini Kareshi is an anime about some highschoolers that have relationship problems and hang out in a konbini, and that’s pretty much it. It’s extraordinarily slow, but somehow I did not end up finding it completely dull - possibly because “nothing happens” also means that nobody talks in this case. A lot of the episode is just awkward, silent situations, with information imparted visually (body language, expressions, etc) instead. Imagine that. Now I don’t want to praise it too much because nothing pays off and, well, nothing happens - but it is actually something markedly different from what you usually see in anime and that’s got to be worth something. I am not sure if I want to give this more chances, but that’s better than being quite sure I never want to see it again, right?

Made in Abyss

If you want to have a master class in how to start a fantasy adventure anime, check out Made in Abyss 01. It just drops you into an utterly beautiful world, sets up a couple of endearing characters and their general situation without boring you with the details, and the explains just enough about the world to answer a few pressing questions that can’t be ignored at the end. It’s beautiful too, great design, great animation, lush backgrounds, the whole shebang. Now it’s essentially a story about a bunch of very young orphans that go spelunking, and the character designs remind me of Ichigo Mashimaro of all things, but I detect no sketchiness here. Obviously it now has a tough act to follow over a whole season, but for the type of show it is you couldn’t ask for a better layup.

Nana Maru San Batsu

Also known as “Fastest Finger First”, this show asks the question: How do you make watching a trivia quiz interesting? Well, the answer is that you don’t. It seems to be a very basic school club show and the topic of the school club is buzzer quizzes. And somehow this fictional story manages to be less engaging than your average actual TV quiz show. Buzzer quizzes don’t have a lot of strategy involved (the show tries to pretend otherwise, but mostly fails), just watching people in quiz-o-vision trying to answer fairly mundane questions is hardly riveting, and besides that it’s just a decidedly subpar comedy. This could have worked if it went full ham like Kakegurui, but it neither has the means nor even much of an inclination to try that. 

Netsuzou TRap - NTR

So here’s the long-dreaded adaptation of the yuri manga that’s so full of bullshit drama that even actual fans of bullshit yuri drama hate it to the point where it became a running joke. And yeah, this sure is bullshit yuri drama about two girls who casually make out while boyfriends aren’t looking too closely. One feels bad about it, the other is a troll. All in all it’s reminiscent of Kuzu no Honkai, except that KnH at least was fully aware that its entire cast was awful people; I can’t even make out what I’m supposed to think about these shenanigans. Now I could say that episode 1 shows potential if it develops properly, but the manga is such a known quantity of bad writing that that’s not a smart idea. It will probably just be Girl A feeling conflicted and Girl B trolling her forever.

Princess Principal

Steampunk is pretty much a laughingstock these days, but I will say that Princess Principal nails the aesthetic if nothing else. It is made of steam and punk; you get your top hats, you get your gears, you get your airships. It’s all pretty cool looking and it also has some nice action. What it’s actually about is some sort of Cold War in divided London, and our protagonists are a crew of schoolgirls that talk about being spies a lot. This is where it becomes apparent that the writer of this was previously convicted of having committed Code Geass (yeah, that guy again), so a certain degree of schlock is to be expected. And really, who else could come up with Steampunk Cold War Berlondon featuring murderous gothlolis? So overall, it’s quite a bit more trashy than I would like but it could be able to pull it off reasonably well on production value alone, and hopefully the writing won’t shit the bed too hard.

Saiyuki Reload Blast

Saiyuki is an old shounen property that adapts Journey to the West. Not to be confused with Dragonball, because this is spaghetti western instead of wuxia. Or so it seems, I’ve never watched one of the anime adaptations that keep getting made every decade or so before. But hey, Reload Blast being a sequel to an anime last made when the ostensible target audience wasn’t even born yet at least has the benefit of not having to deal with tiresome origin stories, we just get to watch the characters do their thing and it’s reasonably easy to figure out anyway. It’s just that it’s not actually all that good; fans of a time when shounen heroes generated a lot of blood spray may get something out of it since it’s pretty violent, but otherwise this iteration of the JttW party are just a bunch of dicks that are trying hard to be cool but aren’t. It’s probably alright for fans of the source material and people hankering for throwback anime, but I don’t think it’s for me.

Shoukoku no Altair

As far as fantasy settings go, a Ottoman-themed one isn’t the most common. So the hero of Shoukoku no Altair hails from fantasy Turkey, which is embroiled in some sort of diplomatic brouhaha with fantasy Germafrance. And that’s really where I start tuning out because this is one of these fantasy epics that start by introducing a million characters that surely will become important eventually, but give me little reason to care about anything otherwise. Exotic locales aside, Altair seems to be mostly setup and the rest of it, the characters, the intrigue, the politics, everything, just don’t motivate me to find out more. It’s possibly not a bad show, but it’s a barely memorable show in a genre I am not particularly fond of.

Tenshi no 3P!

Sometimes it really helps going into random new anime without any previous knowledge. Like here: Tenshi no 3P starts out with a moderately well thought out character sketch of a hikkikomori that spends his day making music and uploading it to the internet. More than a bit tired, but not bad. He then gets a message by “a guy” that wants to work with him. Well, surely nothing bad can come of this. The “guy” turns out to be a primary schooler (girl) from an orphan primary schooler (girl) band that is actually super good but nevertheless needs the services of a music otaku schlub for vague reasons. And then in the end the primary schoolers offer sexual favors in exchange, possibly as a joke but I wouldn't count on that. See, I had been making Ro-Kyu-Bu (i.e., ”Rock-Yu-Bu”) jokes way before that, but as it turns out 3P is by the same author and oh boy can you tell. So it’s this season’s Eromanga-sensei, only somehow worse. I have to admit that I am not even above watching something like this if it’s legitimately great, but thankfully Tenshi no 3P is not even close to being legitimately great. Dodged a bullet there, for sure.

But hey, maybe we will at least get another very embarrassing T-shirt out of it.

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

And finally, we have a show about some priests from the Vatican that travel the world to examine miracles. Well, one miracle at least, in Guatemala. The concept is somewhat intriguing and could make for a nice horror/detective hybrid with a twist, but I wouldn’t trust anime to pull this off properly, and so it’s no surprise that it doesn’t. For starters we get a pair of very pretty leads that seem primarily intended to bait yaoi doujins, and while it admirably tries for an off-kilter (literally, hope you like dutch angles) horror atmosphere, it is more concerned with out main character’s angst. Yeah I don’t know, the intrigue doesn’t seem particularly intriguing either and the horror just doesn’t quite click - it’s trying for gothick ostentatiousness, but doesn’t quite pull that off. I’d be willing to give this a chance if it was a miracle-of-the-week kind of thing, but considering the amount of characters they introduced for this first case that doesn’t seem to be how this show operates. Or at least I’ll wait until more information becomes available.

[mostleemorethansmut]

Stephanie Patrick’s New Album

So, I recently got an E-Mail from Prot¡p, asking if I would help promote her newest album. Now, people don’t contact a random fan blog on Tumblr for promotion, so I of course was skeptical. But after a few E-Mails back and forth, I decided that it was legitimate.

Like I said, at first I doubted her, not only because it seemed like a scam, but also a bit odd. Now, Youtubers moving outside of Youtube is not an uncommon thing. Many have written books, some have made movies, but a rap album from a woman who mainly has a voice for singing was a bit odd.

But, then I got this.

(Sorry for the bad lighting, I’m not a professional) That’s right, I got a copy of the album in the mail, and after listening to it, I have to say, I didn’t expect what I got out of it.

If I’m being completely honest, I loved the album and can’t wait for Prot¡p to release more. The songs were fun, energetic, and full of life. Honestly, if you could think of how GTLive would give you a rap album, and that’s this.

It acknowledges its origins while also being an excellent rap album in and of itself. I found myself enjoying many of the songs just for their melodies and pacing of lyrics. Let me quickly inform you though, this album is for fans of GTLive, no one else. Honestly, I’ve been a medium time fan and I didn’t get a few of the references.

Now, the first song after the intro is actually a whole long reference to Game Theory. It’s called “Where I’m From”. She starts with some lesser knowns, but quickly began rapping about Nintendo, Pewdiepie, and a whole verse dedicated to FNAF. I think that it’s a nice way to reference that she’d been working with Game Theory since the beginning too.

I never thought I’d end up feeling as many emotions as I did during “Pressing Start”, which was the Mario Maker Rap. I won’t explain everything in the album, but I will say that although I didn’t cry when my girlfriend left me, that song almost nearly made me consider to maybe regret that decision.

“In There,” the Unitil Dawn rap, was creatively done and with many points that I never expected to hear through a song. Again, these songs are only like 8 minutes long a piece, so I’m trying not to spoil them here and ruin your experience.

I won’t go too in depth with some of the middle songs. They were all still good and at times I find myself remembering all of their beats as I run. I downloaded all the songs onto my phone. These are all great to jog or work out to.

I sometimes forget how sassy Prot¡p can get, and then I listen to this song and remember. Seriously, “Not Here Again” is the most tongue and cheek take on FNAF I have ever seen. I want to mention how she fits in everything you need to know within about 20 seconds, but I really want to say this album is worth it.

Since we’re on the talk of sass, can I just bring up “A Girl Like Me”? Like that is the sassiest take on dating simulators ever heard. It is simultaneously a break down of their stupidity on one hand, but a promotion of life skills at the same time. It’s amazing.

Don’t even get me started on “Beautiful Places”, the rap about Life is Strange. Honestly, I was bobbing along with the music when some of the serious parts hit and it felt like a punch to the gut that really made an impact.

It’s unfair to say that Prot¡p raps only about video games, although that is the main focus. There’s one called “Of These Things In Life”, although I won’t say who it’s about, I will say that their name aligns with something you place on the floor in front of a door and something you might give an obedient dog’s head.

On the topic of MatPat, “Mine” proves that their relationship is epicly cute. I liked that while the title implies how she might brag about her husband, it actually takes a left turn and the chorus does too, almost re-naming the song “Yours”.

Now, we can’t finish such an album without a song about travel, the only other thing that Prot¡p is in love with. Traveling. I thought that “Around the World” might be a bit odd, and honestly, it’s the weakest song of the album. Not that it’s bad, but it isn’t as good as the rest of the songs on the album.

Most albums would end when the last song was over. But all versions are actually shipped out with an extra three songs just tacked onto the end.

“In My Darkness” was a genuine surprise. I always got the impression that Stephanie didn’t really like Inside (the game); and while that was the case, the song gives a compelling arguments for some ideas. It also really scared me, which was a first for the album.

Then, out of nowhere the music gets cheery like a Saturday morning cartoon and the rapping in it is extremely awkward. “A Place With Ponies” was enjoyable. An interesting take on Pony Island and fun, nonetheless.

And what would be GTLive be without a surprise visit from RapPat? So, during the last song, “Brains”, they both have a simultaneous rap battle. By far the fastest rapping part of the album, but also a song you have to hear twice to understand they’re talking about The Impossible Quiz

While possible that the ablum limits the audience, I think Prot¡p‘s album succeeds in what it sets out to do, and what it sets out to do is be a rap album about GTLive.

And I think it does that perfectly. Five stars.

You can pre-order the album right now, and if you use the code “Mostly” you can get the three bonus songs for free.

Order Here and reblog when you get it. I’d like to hear your takes on the songs.

[dylanlarkiin]

You should do questions 200-147, 80-25, 110-81, 24-2, 146-111, and 1

this took me a while to figure out that you meant all of them.....

200: My crush’s name is: a secret 199: I was born in: 98198: I am really: relaxed rn197: My cellphone company is: AT&T196: My eye color is: brown195: My shoe size is: 7 1/2194: My ring size is: 5 or 6193: My height is: 5′4192: I am allergic to: honey!!!!191: My 1st car was: Jeep wrangler190: My 1st job was: lifeguarding 189: Last book you read: Mosquitoland by David Arnold187: My pet: 2 pups186: My best friend: Kerry185: My favorite shampoo is: i use whatever doesn't wash my hair dye out the fastest184: Xbox or ps3: I'm not a gamer really183: Piggy banks are: cute182: In my pockets: are my car keys181: On my calendar: i keep my exam dates and birthdays 180: Marriage is: for after i finish college179: Spongebob can: be cancelled178: My mom: is the best mom in the world177: The last three songs I bought were?: slow burn - state champs, how do you feel - the maine and believe by mumford & sons 176: Last YouTube video watched: “how to french braid hair”175: How many cousins do you have?: more than 12174: Do you have any siblings?: one younger sis173: Are your parents divorced?: no172: Are you taller than your mom?: nope171: Do you play an instrument?: no :(170: What did you do yesterday?: spent easter with my family

[ I Believe In ]169: Love at first sight: no 168: Luck: yes167: Fate: yes166: Yourself: yes165: Aliens: yes164: Heaven: yes163: Hell: yes162: God: yes161: Horoscopes: occasionally160: Soul mates: no159: Ghosts: yes158: Gay Marriage: yes157: War: history repeats itself156: Orbs: yes155: Magic: yes

[ This or That ]154: Hugs or Kisses: hugs153: Drunk or High: drunk152: Phone or Online: phone151: Red heads or Black haired: black hair150: Blondes or Brunettes: brunettes 149: Hot or cold: hot148: Summer or winter: summer147: Autumn or Spring: autumn 146: Chocolate or vanilla: strawberry145: Night or Day: day144: Oranges or Apples: oranges143: Curly or Straight hair: curly142: McDonalds or Burger King: chicken fries141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: NO MILK EW140: Mac or PC: mac139: Flip flops or high heals: flip flops 138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: sweet and poor, its about the character 137: Coke or Pepsi: pepsi136: Hillary or Obama: eh135: Burried or cremated: idk134: Singing or Dancing: singing 133: Coach or Chanel: neither thanks132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: nope131: Small town or Big city: big city130: Wal-Mart or Target: target129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: no preference 128: Manicure or Pedicure: manicure 127: East Coast or West Coast: west even tho i live on the east coast126: Your Birthday or Christmas: christmas 125: Chocolate or Flowers: flowers124: Disney or Six Flags: six flags never been to disney 123: Yankees or Red Sox: none

[ Here’s What I Think About ]122: War: i do not prefer it, but i like to learn about it120: Gay Marriage: everyone should love whoever they choose119: The presidential election: shitshow118: Abortion: women should each have their own right to choose117: MySpace: lol!!!!!!116: Reality TV: entertaining 115: Parents: love them114: Back stabbers: assholes113: Ebay: ive found some decent stuff112: Facebook: never had one111: Work: gotta make money somehow 110: My Neighbors: they're nice people109: Gas Prices: THEYRE GOING UP TOO MUCH108: Designer Clothes: give or take107: College: hardest shit I've ever had to do106: Sports: hockey105: My family: most supportive104: The future: i live one day at a time

[ Last time I ]103: Hugged someone: yesterday 102: Last time you ate: two mins ago101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: yesterday 100: Cried in front of someone: few weeks ago99: Went to a movie theater: friday98: Took a vacation: march 16th 201797: Swam in a pool: march 16th 96: Changed a diaper: like years probably95: Got my nails done: last november94: Went to a wedding: last july93: Broke a bone: i have not broken any, knock on wood92: Got a piercing: april of 201591: Broke the law: don't know90: Texted: 20 mins ago 

[ MISC ]89: Who makes you laugh the most: my sister88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: my dogs 87: The last movie I saw: fate of the furious 86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: summer!!!!!!85: The thing im not looking forward to: college final exams84: People call me: outgoing83: The most difficult thing to do is: save money82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: no81: My zodiac sign is: cancer80: The first person i talked to today was: my dad79: First time you had a crush: elementary school78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: my best friend or sister77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: few hours ago76: Right now I am talking to: my grandma75: What are you going to do when you grow up: nursing 74: I have/will get a job: this summer73: Tomorrow: i have an anatomy quiz 72: Today: is warm out71: Next Summer: no idea69: I have these pets: two dogs68: The worst sound in the world: crying babies67: The person that makes me cry the most is: idk66: People that make you happy: my family and friends65: Last time I cried: couple weeks ago64: My friends are: awesome63: My computer is: at 14%62: My School: sucks61: My Car: is great60: I lose all respect for people who: drink and drive 59: The movie I cried at was: last one was this space movie58: Your hair color is: dark brown57: TV shows you watch: ghost adventures and whatever else is on 56: Favorite web site: forever 2155: Your dream vacation: somewhere beautiful and warm54: The worst pain I was ever in was: when i dislocated my knee53: How do you like your steak cooked: medium well52: My room is: messy51: My favorite celebrity is: uh idk50: Where would you like to be: in a happier less stressful place 49: Do you want children: far down the road48: Ever been in love: yes47: Who’s your best friend: kerry46: More guy friends or girl friends: girl45: One thing that makes you feel great is: showering44: One person that you wish you could see right now: my bff43: Do you have a 5 year plan: no42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: nope41: Have you pre-named your children: no40: Last person I got mad at: myself39: I would like to move to: somewhere warm38: I wish I was a professional: investigator 

[ My Favorites ]37: Candy: sour candy36: Vehicle: jeeps35: President: idk34: State visited: florida or cali33: Cellphone provider: what i have now31: Actor:30: Actress:29: Singer: halsey28: Band: state champs27: Clothing store: forever 2126: Grocery store: kroger25: TV show: vampire diaries24: Movie: hard choice22: Animal: giraffes 21: Theme park: universal 20: Holiday: christmas 19: Sport to watch: hockey 18: Sport to play: volleyball17: Magazine: star magazine16: Book: so many 15: Day of the week: friday14: Beach: up north beaches in michigan 13: Concert attended: jonas brothers reunion12: Thing to cook: pasta11: Food: mexican10: Restaurant: on the border9: Radio station: 98.7 amp radio8: Yankee candle scent: something soft and sweet7: Perfume: vanilla 6: Flower: lilies5: Color: purple4: Talk show host: ellen3: Comedian: idk2: Dog breed: mutts1: Did you answer all these truthfully? yes

(some of these were repeats so i deleted them, THANK YOUUUUUUU

[astridthevalkyrie]

A Game

Modern AU. In an effort to interact with each other, Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, FIshlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut all decide to play a trivia game. When you’re hanging out with the twins, though, math problems aren’t going to be the category. Oneshot.

Okay, I swear, the next chapter of Dancing and the Dreaming is finished, and the next chapter of I Knew You Were Trouble is almost done too. I just HAD to do this, because this is what we did in class today (the same category) and it was too funny not to write.

There had to be a way, Hiccup decided right away, to have fun on their phones and be interactive at the same time. If they didn’t socialize somehow, they all got in trouble.

But why oh why did his parents’ friends have to have children who were so weird?

Snotlout he had known his whole life, seeing as they were cousins. The rest of them he knew from school, but Astrid Hofferson was the only one he talked to on a regular basis. Well, more like stuttered to on a regular basis. They were lab partners, but he also had too big of a crush on her to say anything coherent. As long as he didn’t mess up their work, she didn’t seem to care.

“Let’s do a trivia game. Hiccup, what do you think? It’s your house,” the girl said, and Hiccup forced himself not to blush. It was a hard thing to do.

“Um...yeah, sure.”

Fishlegs looked excited, while Snotlout groaned loudly. “Fine, but none of you nerds choose which category.”

“Fair enough.” Hiccup slid over to his computer as he heard Astrid say that it was not fair enough. Then, Ruff reassured her that it was very fair because no one wanted to do a trivia game on Calculus. Hiccup agreed, but he did not say so.

“Hook it up to your phones, guys.” He opened the website and scrolled down the categories.

Tuffnut came behind him and knocked him out of the chair, taking his place. Hiccup glared, but to no avail - the blonde boy didn’t even notice.

“Do Harry Potter!”

“Do FInal Fantasy!”

“DO DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!”

Hiccup winced as all the other kids threw Fishlegs a look that clearly told him what they thought about choosing Dungeons and Dragons.

“I’ve got it!” Tuff cried, jumping up. “Sesame Street!”

Before anyone could say anything, he started the game, and Astrid shrieked, lunging for her phone on the bed.

“Sesame Street?” Snotlout protested as he opened his own phone. “Are you serious?”

Hiccup didn’t hear Tuffnut’s reply, he was too busy looking at the first question. It was a character quiz; it showed them a picture and they had to click one option out of four to identify the character.

It had been a while since he last saw Sesame Street.

The first three questions were all in Astrid’s favor, they all got them right, but she did them the fastest. Hiccup had to marvel at her speed - after all, they were doing a quiz on a show that they had all watched as toddlers.

The fourth question was stumping, so Astrid yelled out, “WHO IS THAT?”

Snotlout looked up from his phone, smirking, “You seriously don’t know? Option 3.”

A pause, and then Hiccup heard her shriek again.

“YOU LIAR!”

Snotlout started snickering, and the rest of the teens joined in. Hiccup tried to resist it, but after taking a good look at the blonde beauty’s face, even he had to laugh. Now, Snotlout was in the lead.

Ruffnut started pacing as they played. Her eyes were narrowed, and she fist pumped after every question, whether she got it right or wrong. The second last question was the first one Hiccup got wrong, and then she started laughing at him.

“You thought that was Rosita?”

“IT WASN’T?” Snotlout shouted in horror, and now it was Astrid’s turn to laugh.

“THAT WAS ZOE!”

“WHO THE HELL IS ZOE?”

Tuff reached over and knocked him upside the head. “Respect Zoe - she made the show alive!”

“GUYS!” Fishlegs yelled, jumping up and down. “THE LAST QUESTION, THE LAST QUESTION!”

“SHUT UP, EVERYONE!” Astrid roared, and then said a curse word that Hiccup had never even heard of. Tuffnut gasped dramatically.

“WHO IS THAT?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Hiccup shouted, the competitiveness finally getting to him. “I DON’T KNOW - WHO IS IT?”

“BROTHER BEAR!” Fishlegs squealed, and then as he won, cleared his throat, corrected, “Sorry, baby bear.”

Snotlout slammed his phone down on the bed. “WHO THE FUCK IS BABY BEAR?”

Ruffnut shook her fist at him. “Clearly, you didn’t watch the show?”

Astrid was too busy freaking out, and she punched the wall so fiercely that Hiccup jumped. Oh yeah, she had lost.

Fishlegs did not get too excited about his victory before both Astrid and Snotlout tackled him, demanding to know how he won. The twins didn’t seem to care, but joined them anyway, while Hiccup only watched, bewildered.

These were high school kids, right?

Well. They weren’t the worst people you could hang out with.

Yes, I played a trivia game with sixteen other kids in class on Sesame Street, and it was pandemonium. We took it very seriously.

[ciathyzareposts]

Nippon Safes Inc. – Three’s company

By Torch

In my previous post time we took a gander at the manual and discussed the history of the developers, but not much was said about the game itself, so let’s get cracking (literally) on that.

I start off as Doug Nuts. (So no quiz-based character selection as of yet.) He’s underground in what looks like a sewer and has seemingly huffed and puffed his way through a brick wall and is now facing something that looks suspiciously like a bank vault.

Who exactly is this “BANK” sign intended for?

I bet you’re dying to see where this is going, but let’s pause for a moment, to talk a little bit about the interface. It’s fairly simple; When I press and hold the right mouse button, this menu appears:

I move the mouse to the action I want to perform, and release the button. The mouse pointer changes shape to reflect the selected action, and I can click whatever I want to perform the action on. The actions are from left to right: “Open” – “Look” – “Take” and “Speak”.

There’s no separate inventory. When you pick up an item, it’s added to the action menu, and you select it the same way as the actions. Oh and if I pick an action and then mouseover an area of interest, the name/description will only show if the action in question can be performed on this specific area. If I want to simply use an item, I click it on myself.

That seems to be all there is to it. For now, at least.

Having mastered the interface, I check my surroundings. Near Doug is a toolbox. When I open it, I find a pack of plastic explosives and a detonator, which I take. The bank wall has a conspicuously square-looking hole, that seems a great fit for my explosives. I insert them and try using the detonator. As mentioned, this is done by selecting it and clicking it on Doug. He’s not too keen on blowing himself up, so I move him into an alcove off to the left of the screen and try again.

Success! The wall blows up and leaves a big, gaping hole for Doug to enter. However, as I approach…

So my detonation precedes me

Fastest game over ever?

Well, that took all of 5 minutes. So how do we restore….. Oh wait, it’s not over.

You talkin’ ta me? Fuhgeddaboudit. And so on.

I’ve now magically ( or rather programmatically ) turned in to Dino, the discarded boxer. He’s looking for a job and has decided to try his luck in a fancy looking office.

May want to drop the lollipop when going in for a job interview. Also, please somebody decipher that Mitsushita slogan for me

There’s no way to interact with the door or buzzer besides looking at it, so I can’t get into the building, but a shady looking guy appears and starts ogling the sports car that’s parked on the sidewalk, for some reason. When I talk to him, Dino, not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, asks the man if he needs any help getting into “his” car.

I only dress like this to hide from the police. Did I say police? I meant the sun!

Long story short (ok, it wasn’t very long to begin with) Dino rips the door off the hinges and the world’s most over-the-top car alarm goes off. And as with Doug, the police in this town are either psychic or getting paid by the arrest.

I thought this was the kind of door that opens downwards

Either way Dino is taken away as well.

They took my lollipoooop!

I’m starting to see a pattern here. I’m guessing we’re off to meet Donna next.

I’m fairly certain she had more hair on the box cover. And less cane

But no! Just when I think I have the game figured out, it subverts my expectation like an episode of Game of Thrones. I’m not controlling Donna at all, but some old guy in a trenchcoat. Ok, let’s see where this takes us. I’m on a street with two nearby hotspots, the most inviting of which is the “Hot Sushi” venue. According to the poster on the outside, that’s where I’ll find Donna. As I enter, however, I’m violently kicked out again by Mr. T. or some relative.

We can’t all be as classy as you

For some reason this guy can only jump to move around. I guess the budget didn’t have room for a walking animation. Anyway, all attempts at re-entry ends with me being kicked out again, so I decide to check “Honest Chan’s” booth on the left side of the screen instead.

To Deano, who was wondering if the game would avoid racial stereotypes: That’s a nope

Honest Chan is running a pawn shop. He only has 2 items of interest to our guy, though: A rubber mouse and a tie. I really have no idea why I was kicked out, but maybe it would help if I was wearing a tie…?

Yeah, that green tie with yellow dots practically reeks of class

It’s quite possible that I figured out this next puzzle because there’s not much else to do at this point, but basically the tie costs 100 yen and the mouse is 200. My guy doesn’t have any money, but he is carrying an amulet. Chan won’t accept this as a trade-in for the tie, but he’ll give me the rubber mouse for it. By now I was plotting an elaborate scheme, where I would wind up the mouse and send it into the Hot sushi, making the bouncer chase it and then sneak in…. Ok, that wasn’t really very elaborate. But I the only thing I can do with the mouse is trade it in with Chan again.

What’s your business model, exactly?

So in other words, he’ll give me a 200 yen item for my amulet, but not a 100 yen item. And then I trade in a 200 yen item for a 100. Makes perfect sense… Regardless, my newly acquired green/yellow polka dotted tie has a hidden bonus modifier of +5 to class, which is apparently sufficient to enter the “Hot sushi”.

I feel a weird urge to take a pick to that middle square on the dance floor

The establishment is empty, which is really no surprise, given their very specific dress code requirement. I can talk to the bartender though, and try to order a drink or get some “informations”.

I just now noticed that the glass in my guy’s spectacles are different colors

More specifically, I can ask about all the members of the dynamic trio.

Who could they be?

If I pick the top 2 choices, the bartender will give me the names of Doug and Dino, but the third choice prompts Donna to come out on stage for a …. Ok, let’s be generous and call it a dance.

It’s mostly just walking back and forth on stage

After a short while, Donna announces that she’ll perform the show that made her famous: “The bottle show”. I don’t know what that entails, but it’s a fair guess that it’s not family friendly entertainment, because soon after the announcement

How did you get in without a tie?

So Donna joins the prison gang.

Gender stereotypes: Check

I guess this whole thing has been an intro/tutorial, and the real game is about to start. I’m presented with a sweet sequence of some guy drawing the characters, them coming “alive” and walking around the set of the development studio or something. It’s a nice addition, but I had to crank up the CPU cycles on Dosbox, because on the default setting the drawing process was excruciatingly slow.

Look at them go

Check the exhaust pipe on the computer. This must be Glorious Olga 35 (5 CAPs for the first commenter to get the reference)

Yes yes, we get it. They’re all stereotypes

After the intro animation is over, I get to the character selection screen

I think I just now realized that all their names start with a ‘D’

Now, I honestly don’t fully understand the point of this next screen. If you recall my intro post, I mention the quiz, where you’re supposed to answer questions to choose the character whose personality you most connect with. The responses to each question will yield a syllable, matching the ones on display in the screenshot. I figured if I put all my responses together, I could input a word or something, and the game would suggest to most suitable character (to start with).

On this screen, however, the mouse pointer is not displayed, and I can’t type anything besides the numbers 1-3. If I press one of them, I start that character’s chapter. So what’s the point of the quiz? Or this screen at all? If anybody knows how this is supposed to work, and I’m doing something wrong, please let me know in the comments.

For now, I picked Doug. Because reasons.

Sure I do. I just gave it 4 chains on Brigadvisor

I start with Doug having just been released from jail. His inventory contains a key, a letter and 1000 yen. So far I’ve found no way to examine inventory items, so I have no idea what kind of key it is. If I select the letter, I can read it by clicking it on Doug.

The letter is from someone who calls himself Dr. Ki. He’s apparently the one who posted bail to get me out of prison. He wants me for a “delicate” job that requires maximum confidentiality. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for staying out of jail for too long. Regardless, it’s an adventure game, so what else can one do but go check out what the guy wants?

Unfortunately, the prison is a long way from the city, and the guard won’t call me a cab. I can leave the screen to the east, which brings me to a highway.

Too bad that impenetrable fence keeps Doug from walking somewhere a bit safer

Walking along (or rather on) the highway, I find 2 empty trashcans and a payphone. Oh, and a road-sign.

So now it’s Tyoko again?

After 3 screens, I come to a dead-end.

Maybe the eye would see farther if you were standing up

I try the payphone, but it needs some sort of token to make a call. There aren’t a lot of hotspots here, so after wandering around these 3 screens (4 with the prison area) for over half an hour, I’m starting to think I’ve encountered a bug or something. Sort of by chance I suddenly discover that I can also go south from the prison. Duh, don’t I feel stupid? In my defense, the hotspot for the exit text doesn’t overlap too well with the graphics that look like they could represent an exit. Oh well. Due south I find an abandoned food stand and a trash can with some actual trash. I can pick up an empty soda can and its tab (the thing that you pull up to get to the soda). Thinking Doug – being a veritable MacGyver of the underworld – could perhaps work some magic on the payphone with this, I head back there, and jackpot!

I bet MacGyver would’ve just built a phone

Shortly after, a cab pulls up. The driver is a pretty mean-looking guy, who’s worried that I can’t afford the ride, and that he’ll have to put me in hospital like the previous customer who couldn’t pay. I assure him that I’m good for it, and we get under way. After all, I’ve got 1000 yen in cash. After a while, though, the meter passes the 1000 yen mark. I run to Google, and it turns out 1000 yen is only about $9 USD. Ooops.

I’m just wondering if your meter might be susceptible to modification by soda can tab.

After a while we arrive at a familiar place, and I’m now facing a 2500 yen cab fare. Under threat of serious injury, I try to bargain with the cab driver.

Brace for impact

It’s only a flesh wound

So he ends up punching me in the stomach, DOESN’T take my 1000 yen, then drives off. Big whoop… The old guy in Donna’s intro was treated worse for not wearing a tie. Ok, let’s head into the “Hot Sushi” then, and get to the bottom of this whole letter-sending thing.

Apparently the tie requirement isn’t a thing anymore

The letter was sent from a Dr. Ki, but when I talk to the bartender, Doug asks for a Dr. Woo. So far naming consistency has not been the game’s strongest suit. Maybe Woo is his first name, and Ki his second, so Woo Ki? Er… sounds like a there could be a lawsuit somewhere in there…

There’s a guy sitting alone in a booth to the right, and hey! It’s our guy from before. With the cane. And the tie. He doesn’t want to talk initially, but I show him the letter, which makes him change his tune.

The guys at the table are cameos from some of the developers. Totally meta.

Dr. Woo-Ki is by his own account a collector of sacred objects, mostly statues, idols and stuff like that, but he’s missing a rare jade Buddha statue and wants me to steal it for him. If I refuse, he’ll un-bail me from jail. I don’t know a lot about Japanese law, but that doesn’t sound like something that should be possible. Oh well, plot devices and their little games. The Buddha is in the Saku-Rambo monastery, wherever that is. Only initiates are allowed inside, and the statue is kept in a safe. Alrighty then. We have a purpose. Guess it’s time to round off for now. Next time I’m hoping to get to the bottom of the greatest mystery of all: What’s the proper name of the city? “Tioko” or “Tyoko”?

Time played: 1t 20m Inventory: 1000 yen, unidentified key, empty soda can.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/nippon-safes-inc-threes-company/

[awesomeblockchain]

Lewis Tuff, 28, is one of Business Insider's UK Fintech 35 under 35.

He has worked at UBS, Goldman Sachs, Revolut, and now Blockchain.

Tuff told Business Insider how he got where he is today and what advice he'd share with those looking to copy his career path.

LONDON - Lewis Tuff is a high-achiever.

Tuff, who features on Business Insider's UK Fintech 35 under 35 list, is just 28 but has already worked at UBS, Goldman Sachs, fast-growing fintech startup Revolut, and now Blockchain, a much-vaunted cryptocurrency and blockchain company.

"I think partly it's putting yourself out there," Tuff, an engineer, told Business Insider of his whirlwind career so far. "Many engineers are very technical and laser-focused on building, but then they forget to tell the world about what they're actually doing.

"It's one thing to have a company brand and to have people know your business and what products you deliver, but it's a whole other thing to have an engineering brand that really resonates with engineers in the marketplace about the kind of technical challenges you're solving, how you're solving them, and the specs you're working with."

Business Insider spoke with Tuff to quiz him on any tips he might have for people looking to follow in his footsteps. Here's what he said:

'Everyone was like, oh my goodness, what are you doing?'

Tuff studied artificial intelligence at Manchester University before being "sucked into the investment banking world and post-graduation went straight to UBS," he said.

After a few years working as an engineer in the interest rates trading division, he joined Goldman Sachs. Tuff said it was a "much more fast-paced, high pressure, which is the kind of environment I enjoy."

Then, after a few years at Goldman, Tuff was approached by an old UBS colleague: Vlad Yatsenko, who was in the process of setting up Revolut, a no-fee foreign exchange card linked to an app.

"He reached out to me to say we're looking for some engineers to kick off this idea we have, would you be interested?" Tuff recalled. "I went in and met the team, which at that time was just Nik and Vlad and one or two other interns on support.

"Once they told me about their dream ambition and what they're building, I fell in love with the idea and the product and thought that this was really quite amazing and there's nothing else out there encapsulating all of these services into one nice user experience."

His colleagues at Goldman, however, were not so sure.

"Everyone was like, oh my goodness, what are you doing? They only have a couple of thousand users, why would anyone need it, this is crazy!" he recalls.

"But, for me, the decision was made easier because I looked around and my path at Goldman was already laid out for me. That's very boring to know that if you succeed in five years you'll be X, in 10 years you'll be Y. You'll retire at a certain age and then that's your life over with. You'll look back and say, what did I achieve and what impact did I make? I thought, well, if it all fails in six months I'll have learnt a hell of a lot and I can just go back to Goldman."

Tuff believes this willingness to take risks is an important factor that has helped propel his career thus far. In the event, joining Revolut turned out to be a great idea. The startup is now one of the fastest growing in the world and was valued at $1.7 billion in a recent funding round.

Tuff spearheaded the launch of a cryptocurrency trading feature in Revolut's app, getting him noticed by Peter Smith, the CEO and founder of Blockchain.

"We got talking and he told me about what Blockchain is trying to achieve and I was like, wow, the potential here is huge," Tuff said. "It's no longer just improving on the existing infrastructure, it's actually kind of redefining how we think about a lot of these financial services. I thought wow, the growth potential here is massive."

'Get a mentor'

Throughout his career, Tuff believes that developing his network has helped him to advance.

"I'm very keen on getting out there and doing a lot of talks, speaking to people in the industry and getting to know them," he said. "I've signed up for a lot of events, not just conferences but also things like Code First Girls. I taught a course on Code First Girls."

Tuff also stresses the importance of mentorship: "Something I've found invaluable at every stage of my career is to get a mentor. When you're in a corporate environment that's much easier because usually there are programmes in place.

"Then when I stepped into Revolut, you lose that structure. So I went out and sought to find a mentor. Just through my network I asked around and found one. I think the key piece of advice is if you don't ask, it'll never happen. I've been continually surprised by how much people are willing to help you if you just ask them for help. I've had mentors throughout my career who have been pivotal in my decision making and progression."

'Breaks from the day-to-day are important'

While Tuff said he enjoyed the pressure of Goldman Sachs and Revolut is known to have an intense working culture, he believes downtime is actually an important factor in his success.

"You need to be quite strict about your own schedule and priorities. When I'm at work, then I'm all in and really focused on delivery.

"But then I make sure that I make time in the evenings and weekends to take my mind away from that. Having that kind of headspace and breaks from the day-to-day are important. So long weekends or trips away, unplugging. I make a point of if I go away, not checking slack or emails by the pool every day because then you're just constantly thinking about it."

The danger of not doing this is that "people burn out and then it's likely you're going to make suboptimal decisions because you have less space to think about it," Tuff said.

https://ift.tt/2sbhYnl

[100wordanime]

This might seem like an odd choice for a list but I’m going to be honest, going into Summer 2017 there were only a few shows that on reading the synopsis made me want to try them and then most of those were unavailable to me. I did get to watch Elegant Yokai Apartment Life and it had the opposite problem of the write up makes it sound more fun that it is. So instead I got to just randomly sample shows that I went into expecting not to really like them very much and in some cases the results have been pleasantly surprising. That’s not to say these are the best shows I’m watching or the best on offer, only that they are actually more fun than I initially thought they would be.

Anyway, I’d love to know if there’s a show that has surprised you this Summer season by not being dreadful.

Please note: Probably only limited spoilers below.

Honourable mention this week to Princess Principal. Not only is it one of my favourite shows of the season, it is one that from the short synopsis I read and the character designs I was pretty positive I was going to drop, not because it sounded bad, but because it just didn’t sound or look like something I would enjoy. So glad I watched the first episode because it was great fun.

Number 5: 18if

After going to sleep like normal, Haruto Tsukishiro wakes up to discover something unbelievable—he’s stuck in dream world! Here, witches plague the dreamscape and are more than dreamy figments—they’re the trapped souls of young women who’ve rejected reality and are afflicted by the “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”

The above is the Crunchyroll synopsis and reading that it just screams that this is something to be avoided. Stuck in a dream world? Okay, here’s another chance for a writer to just be totally random for no reason. Oh, there are witches who are actually the trapped souls of young women? Suffering from a syndrome named after a fairy tale character. It all just seemed far too much like a desperate cry for attention and to be honest with each episode featuring a unique art style and tone you could be forgiven for thinking this entire story is just a project being made by an over-zealous art class full of students that all just want their turn at creating someone for Haruto to rescue. Despite that, it actually hasn’t been a bad watch. There’s been quite a bit of heart in some of the stories and there’s been enough cohesion with Haruto to carry us from story to story without too much confusion. Admittedly, this could still end very badly or not at all if they don’t bother to get to some sort of more definitive point before the season draws to a close.

Number 4: Gamers

“Would you like to be with me… in the Gamers Club?” Amano Keita is a perfectly mediocre loner with no particular distinguishing features other than his love for games. One day, his school’s prettiest girl and Gamer Club President Tendo Karen suddenly calls out to him. That moment changes Keita’s life forever, as he now finds himself in the midst of a romcom with beautiful girl gamers… or, well, that’s how it usually goes. Not with him, however.

As much as I like games and gaming, this anime didn’t exactly scream that it was something I wanted to watch. Everything about the synopsis is cliché and high school, club anime about loner boy getting targeted by the school’s ‘prettiest girl’ to join a club just didn’t seem like something I was going to get into. And the first episode more or less confirmed those fears and then it didn’t. Gamers managed to turn the trite and overused scenario on its head and admittedly it has marched us through a lot of tropes and clichés the way it manages to continue to defy audience expectations while remaining watchable is pretty amazing. The narrative is completely shot at this point because of all the twists they keep building in but it doesn’t really matter because I’m just caught up with these odd characters and their odd but charming interactions.

Number 3: Fastest Finger First

Bunzou High School is welcoming its new first-year students. One of them, Koshiyama Shiki, is chosen to participate against his will in an impromptu fast-buzzing quiz meet by the president of the Quiz Bowl Circle. As a quiet boy who loves reading and doesn’t want to stand out, Shiki is overwhelmed, but his classmate, Fukami Mari, is able to hit the buzzer and answer questions before the full question is given.

Once again, high school club with quiet boy getting dragged into things. What actually drew me to this one is that it was about quizzes and I really enjoy them so I ignored all my trepidations and took on the first episode. While I can’t say that this has truly defied any of my expectations, it is really quite watchable and mostly that is because of Koshiyama as the protagonist. He might be a quiet kid who doesn’t like standing out but there’s more to him than just that and he’s actually proving to be a reasonably well rounded protagonist. Does that make the show particularly good? Not really. Unless you like quizzes there really isn’t a lot to get into with the story. However, given what my initial thoughts were when reading that synopsis I’ve ended up finding this fairly okay.

Number 2: Clean Freak Aoyama-Kun

Aoyama kun is a hot, young soccer prodigy who plays midfielder for the National U-16 Soccer Team. But he’s also an extreme germaphobe! The TV anime adaptation of “Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama kun!” (Clean Freak!! Aoyama kun) portrays the friendships he forms and the challenges he overcomes in a “spotless” coming-of-age story!

Seriously? It is a story about a ‘hot’ soccer player who is a germaphobe and in case that isn’t enough to make your eyes roll right out your head at the sheer gimmicky nature of that match up we then get an incredibly tacky pun dropped into the synopsis just for fun. There was absolutely nothing about that write up that made this seem like it would appeal and to be honest, there’s nothing about the show that really should given its basically an episodic comedy that has a cast of overly zany characters that each seem to get one episode in the spotlight where their extreme dysfunction takes centre stage as we circle around Aoyama and then we move on. Despite that, I’ve been finding this anime oddly charming. Not every joke is a winner and some episodes are more tiresome than others, but overall, Aoyama has been kind of interesting and part of that is probably because despite the cheap jokes and gimmicks, for the most part it seems to respect people with conditions. There are a lot of tacky jokes in the series but Aoyama’s need to clean has for the most part been treated as a setting rather than the target of the humour.

Number 1: In Another World With My Smartphone

After dying as a result of God’s mistake, the main character finds himself in a parallel world, where he begins his second life. His only possessions are the body that God gave back to him and a smartphone that works even in this new world. As he meets all kinds of new people and forges new friendships, he ends up learning the secret to this world. He inherits the legacy of an ancient civilization and works together with the kings of some very laid-back countries on his carefree travels through this new world.

Right from the title you know what this show is giving you. It is another self-aware isekai story about an overpowered protagonist trapped in another world. Gimmick to throw in is he gets to take his phone with him and somehow it works. There’s really no reason at all this anime should have appealed to me and yet there’s just something about how it delivers its tropes that manages to entertain. It seldom crosses into overly cringe worthy territory and even though the last couple of episodes have started to become a little repetitive, due to Touya being all but an unstoppable force of nature at this point, there’s still plenty to make me smile about this show. Nope, it has no depth and it isn’t trying to actually make itself distinct or a satire on the genre or anything else. What it does is simply remember why these clichés became cliches and what makes them fun. It delivers lines that in most shows would all but be followed with a nudge to the audience to let us know that they are aware it is an overused line in an absolutely serious manner. Just as it delivers cloth dissolving slimes without a hint of shame. All and all, of all the shows I tried without really expecting anything from them, this one is the one I’ve ended up having the most fun with. Again, not exactly the best anime of the season but nowhere near as terrible as it could have been from that synopsis.

Over to you, which show this Summer did you find to be oddly not terrible after reading a synopsis that kind of made you wonder why you were even pressing play?

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this post and like the blog, consider becoming a patron to support further growth and future content.

Thanks,

Karandi James.

Tuesday’s Top 5: Shows of Summer 2017 That Weren’t As Bad As Their Synopsis Made Them Sound This might seem like an odd choice for a list but I'm going to be honest, going into Summer 2017 there were only a few shows that on reading the synopsis made me want to try them and then most of those were unavailable to me.